



PRESENTED liY 







Rkv. Sam P. Jones. 



Sermons and Sayings, 



BY THEREV. SAM X P. JONES, 



Of the North Georgia Conference. 



FIRST SERIES. 



JX EDITED BY 

W. M. LEFTWICH, D.D. 



. ..<a@®^ . 



•And he gave some Evangelists." (St. Paul ) 



~ •-%$&' ' 



Printed for the Author. 

Publishing House of the M. E. Church, South. 

Barbee & Smith, Agents, Nashville, Tenn. 

1891, 






TO THE PUBLIC. 

The publication of my "Sermons and Sayings" by a house in 
Ohattanooga, Tenn., and another in Richmond, Va., was unauthor- 
ized by me. These books contain only the imperfect reports of my 
sermons that appeared in the newspapers, many of which leave out 
the body of the sermon and give to the public only garbled and sen- 
sational paragraphs. They necessarily do me great injustice, and 1 
hope they will be discontinued. 

The volume of "Sermons and Sayings" issued by the Southern 
Methodist Publishing House is the only publication authorized by 
me. Sam P. Jones 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1885, 

Bt the Book Agents of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington 



JO 



EDITOR'S NOTE. 



b — 

q Tjiese Sermons — except two — were preached in the great gospel 
C3 tent in Nashville, Tenn., between May 10th and 30th, 1885. In 

; giving them to the public, two facts should be stated: 
^>. 1. The publication of this volume of Mr. Jones's " Sermons and 
"2" Sayings" was made necessary by the haste with which the imperfect 
reports of his sermons, as printed in the daily papers, were gathered 
up, put in pamphlet form, and thrown upon the market. Both the 
evangelist. and the truth he preaches suffer great injustice by such 
publications. 

2. While it is impossible to put Sam Jones into printer's ink, the 
utmost care has been taken to reproduce his sermons and sayings 
with fidelity to the original. His style, his phraseology, his figures, 
his witticisms, his ridicule, his intense earnestness, his pathos, and his 
happy illustrations, are all preserved and reproduced. But the con- 
spicuous absence from the printed page of Sam Jones — his person, 
his careless attitudes, his impassioned gestures, the flash of his eye, 
the glow of his face, the wide-open-mouth laugh, the thoughtful 
scratching of the head with one finger, and the tenderness and rapt- 
ure of his glowing soul — will be felt and appreciated by those who 
have heard him. And yet the pointed, telling, burning gospel that he 
preaches, and as he preaches it, is here, just as it fell from his lips. 

That these "Sermons and Sayings" may bring many souls to Christ 
and quicken thousands into higher and holier living with God, are 
the objects for which they are sent out on their unending mission. 

The editor cannot forego an expression of his indebtedness to Mr, 
John L. Kirby, proof-reader for the Southern Methodist Publishing 
House. W. M. L. 

NOTE TO TSE TWENTY4EYENTH EDITION. 

The fact that twenty-six thousand copies of this book have been sold 
in four months is the best evidence that can be given of the public 
appreciation and demand for it. We stop the press just long enough 
to make a careful revision, add another thrilling sermon and prohi- 
bition address, making three hundred and four pages, and then 
speed the volume on its winning, widening way. May many thou- 
sands be converted to Christ and saved in heaven through the liv- 
ing ti iths of these practical, pointed Sermons! W. M. L. 

Nashville, Dec, 1885. 

(3) 



CONTENTS. 



RAW 

Biographical Sketch 5 

Prefatory Note« 8 

Sermon I. Grace and Salvation 13 

Sermon II. Let Your Light So Shine Before Men 24 

Sermon III. Prisoners of Hope 39 

Sermon IV. David's Beligiotjs Experience 50 

Sermon V. What Must I Do to Be Saved? 64 

Sermon VI. Mother, Home, Heaven 79 

Sermon VII. The Fruits of the Spirit 96 

Sermon VIII. The Prodigal Son 109 

Sermon IX. Waiting and Hoping 130 

Sermon X. Kighteousness and Life — Sin and Death 145 

Sermon XI. Weary and Heavy-laden 158 

Sermon XII. Conditions of Pardon 171 

Sermon XIII. What Shall the Harvest Be? 184 

Sermon XIV. Turn Ye 201 

Sermon XV. I Thought on My Ways 218 

Sermon XVI. The Doctrine Demonstrated 233 

Sermon XVII. God's Calls and Man's Calamities 245 

Sermon XVIII. Character Building 258 

Sermon XIX. For Him or Against Him — The Best Wine 

at the Last 267 

Sermon XX. Ways of Pleasantness 281 

Prohibition. (An Address before the Georgia State Temper- 
ance Convention.) 297 

Prohibition in Ati anta 302 

A. 



BMRAPHML SKETCH. 



The Rev. Sam P. Jones was born in Chambers county, Ala. 
October 16, 1847, and was reared in Cartersville, Bartow count y t 
On., where he still resides. He has a good ancestry. Like Timothy, 
the unfeigned faith that is in him dwelt in his grandmother and in 
his own mother; and more, in his father and grandfather, and as far 
back as his ancestry can be traced, and latterly in his uncles, four 
of whom are ministers of the gospel. When, therefore, the Holy 
Spirit quickened him into remembrance of these things, and "stirred 
up the gift that was in him," the hereditary faith and fire flamed 
out into the voice of one crying in the wilderness — a voice that calls 
the Church to judgment, startles the gilded guilt of the world with 
the summons to repentance, and moves and melts with the tender- 
ness and tears of a love and sympathy born of the experience of his 
own happy conversion from a life of youthful folly and dissipation 
His maternal grandmother was distinguished in her day, not more 
for her gentle, modest, lovable disposition, which made her a uni- 
versal favorite, than for her strong faith and fervent piety, which 
consecrated both her temper and her tongue to God, so that the 
Hjly Ghost seemed at times to take possession of both, and come 
down through them in mighty baptism upon penitents and congre- 
gations while she prayed in public. His mother was a woman of 
superior intelligence and piety, but she died when he was only eight 
years old. She left upon his young heart and life the tender minis- 
tries of motherly gentleness and love which are forever associated 
in his mind with the angels of God. His "precious mother," as he 
always calls her, is a ministering angel to him. His father, Captain 
John J. Jones, was a lawyer of note in Georgia, distinguished for 
his intelligence, integrity, probity, social qualities, and consistent 
piety. He prepared his son for the legal profession, which he en- 
tered in early manhood with the fairest prospects and promises of 
success. But his exuberant social temperament soon led him into 
social excesses, and on and on into the vortex of dissipation. Whis- 
ky-drinking, profanity, and their kindred evils, swept him down into 
the deepest depths, and made him so reckless that all efforts for hia 
reformation only maddened him, until his father, baffled and morti- 

(6) 



Biographical Sketch. 



tied, gave up all hope, and then laid down to die. While on his 
death-bed his father seized every opportunity to talk with him. As 
death approached the son grew more and more serious, until the 
closing scene — so triumphant over death that heaven and earth were 
brought together — when the prodigal boy fell down at the dtath-bed 
and cried out for mercy, saying: "I'll quit; I'll quit! 'God, be 
meiciful to me, a sinner!' " Eitterly did he weep, repent, and pray. 
The sad occasion was sanctified to his salvation. The death of 
the father was life to the son. "That which thou sowest is not 
quickened except it die." Death for life and life from death. He 
was at once called of God to preach the gospel, and he waited not 
to confer with flesh- and blood, but at once applied for license to 
preach, and for admission into the traveling ministry. In October, 
1872, in Atlanta, Ga., he was received on trial in the North Georgia 
Conference of the M. E. Church, South. This step astonished his 
friends, who did not believe that he could ever succeed in the 
ministry. They saw no signs of promise in him. His wife bitterly 
opposed it, and said she would leave him forever if he became a 
preacher. But God overruled all, and opened the way for his en- 
trance into the Conference and his enlargement in the work of an 
evangelist. His first appointment was the Van Wert Circuit, in 
Bartow and Polk counties, Ga., which he served three years, the 
people asking for his return each year. In 1876 he was sent to 
I>e Soto Circuit, in Floyd county, where he remained two years. On 
this work he began to develop the peculiarities which have since 
made him famous. His plain, pointed, and personal denunciations 
of the popular vices of the people offended many, and made the 
stewards remonstrate with him, saying that his family would starve, 
because the people would not pay such a preacher. His only reply 
was: "I am preaching my convictions, and have no compromise to 
make." The sweeping revivals that followed were God's indorse- 
ment of his own truth and the fearless fidelity of his servant. In 
.1878 he was sent to Newborn Circuit, Newton county. He began, 
while on this work, to travel out and preach for others, and try his 
apprentice hand at evangelistic work. He was afterward sent to 
Monticello Circuit, in Jasper county, but the calls for his service in 
the adjoining towns and cities increased so rapidly that he was not 
afterward appointed to any pastoral charge. In 1880 he was ap- 
pointed Agent of the North Georgia Conference Orphans' Home, 
when the Home was under great financial embarrassment. He no< 



Biographical Sketch. 



wily relieved the Home of debt, and saved it from financial ruin ; 
but he raised money and erected additional buildings, and put the 
institution upon a career of greatly enlarged usefulness and pros- 
peiity. This has afforded him the largest liberty in the work of an 
evangelist, and his uniform success has magnified his office until 
"the world is his parish." He has the calling, the spirit, the gift, 
the courage, the directness, the sympathy, the faith, the fervor, and 
the flexibility of a true evangelist. 

That Mr. Jones has made full proof of his ministry, his success- 
ful revivals in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Tennessee, 
South Carolina, and Brooklyn, New York, are in evidence. Urgent 
appeals pour in upon him from every part of the country, from 
Washington to San Francisco, and from the Lakes to the Gulf. 
Wherever he goes the churches are stirred and quickened into a 
better and higher life, and sinners are awakened and converted to 
Christ by hundreds and thousands. All classes, from the highest to 
the lowest, from the most learned and cultivated to the most igno- 
rant and the roughest, are alike moved to repentance and a better 
life by him, or rather by the Holy Spirit through him. His power 
over men as men is marvelous, and his power over vast assemblies is 
phenomenal. He is "the master of assemblies." He despises the 
mere arts of oratory, as he does all shams, but he possesses the elo- 
quence of earnestness and action, the fire and glow of passion, the 
surprises of thought, the wit, humor, ridicule, irony, sarcasm, in- 
vective, pathos, sympathy, love, humanity, and faith, which, ex- 
pressed in the language of the shop and field, and illustrated by the 
common facts of life and the happiest allegories, make him the most 
sensational preacher now in the American pulpit. But he is more 
than sensational: he is indued witn power from on high, and com- 
missioned to carry the gospel to the common people, who always 
hoar him gladly. 

The wonderful work which God wrought through Mr. Jones in 
N ishville, Tenn., is appropriately commemorated by this volume of 
i.-rinons. W. M. L. 



PREFATORY NOTES. 

PASTORAL LETTER. 

Knoxville, Tenn., April 15, 1885. 

We. the pastors of Protestant churches, and ministers of the goj- 
pel of the grace of God in Jesus Christ, in the city of Knoxville, to 
the pastors and churches in Nashville, and to the brethren in Christ 
Jesus everywhere to whom these presents may come, send greeting. 

Be it known unto you, brethren and fathers, that by the space of 
twelve days we have had in our midst, and preaching to us and to 
our people, the Kev. Samuel P. Jones, an accredited minister of the 
gospel in the North Georgia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, laboring as an evangelist, and that we have had full 
opportunity to learn the tendency of his teaching and the character 
of his work. 

By reason of evil reports some of us at the first were prejudiced 
against him, but having attended upon his ministrations four times 
a day for eleven consecutive days, hearing his discourses, in which he 
has handled all the fundamental doctrines of the gospel, we have 
found no fault in him. While simply as a matter of taste we could 
have wished some things had been couched in different phraseology 
and some matters illustrated by less humorous incidents, nevertheless 
we indorse the soundness of the doctrine he inculcated in general. 

We bear our cheerful testimony to his zeal for the truth, to his 
jealousy for the honor of the holy religion, to his efforts to glorify 
God, and his earnest love for the souls of men; and we testify that 
while among us his preaching has been evangelical and scriptural, 
and wonderfully blessed to the edification of saints and the convic- 
tion of sinners. His labors here have resulted in awakening pro- 
fessed Christians to a greater earnestness, fidelity, and zeal in the serv- 
ice of God, in public and in private, and in the establishment of 
many family altars where they had never been erected before, and id 
convincing sinners of their lost condition and leading them to flee for 
refuge to the hope set before us in the gospel, and hundreds have given 
good evidence of having passed from death unto life. He has preached 
the word, has been instant in season and out of season; has reproved 
rebuked, exhorted, with all long-suffering; he has shown God's pe« 
(8) 



Prefatory Notes. 



pie I ueir transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins. He haa 
testified in favor of righteousness, and against all unrighteousness. 
His denunciation of the righteous judgment of God on every form 
of vice and iniquity has been bold and fearless, but always coupled 
with compassion and earnest love for the souls of men, and strcng 
iesire to lead them to the cross of Christ for salvation. 

We therefore commend him to you, brethren, as a brother dearly 
beloved by us in Christ, and as a workman that needeth not to be 
ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. And we pray that the 
blessing of God and our Father may be upon all his work and labor 
of love, and that when he shall come to you, it may be in demonstra- 
tion of the Spirit and of power ; and that his mission to you may be 
even more blessed of God to the upbuilding of his kingdom and the 
salvation of men than it was to us. We herald him as an earnest, 
honest, devout, and consecrated servant of our common Lord and Mas- 
ter, willing to spend and be spent in building up the Church of the 
living God, and pointing perishing men to the cross of Christ. 

James Park, Pastor of First Presbyterian Church. 

L. L. H. Caklock, Pastor of Church Street M. E. Church, South 

K. J. Cooke, Pastor of First M. E. Church. 

L. H. Parsons, Presbyterian Minister. 

J. V. F. Tuck, Presbyterian Minister. 

W. H. Bates, Minister M. E. Church, South. 

H. J. Cooley, Local Preacher M. E. Church. 

H. P. Waugh, Lenoir Street M. E. Church, South. 

E. A. Taylor, Pastor of First Baptist Church. 

W. A. Harrison, Pastor of Third Presbyterian Church. 

W. H. Baugh, Pastor of Cumberland Presbyterian Church. 

W H. Bays, Pastor of Broad Street M. E. Church, South. 

William Aiken, Presbyterian Minister. 

D. Dyfri Da vies, Pastor of Welsh Congregational Church, 

C. B. Sparrow, Presiding Elder M. E. Church. 

R. N. Price, Editor Holston Methodist. 

From Rev. Jerry Witherspoon, D.D., Pastor First Presbyterian Church. 
Nashville, Tenn., June 26, 188c, 

in the Rev. Sam P. Jones I recognized, the first time it was my 
piivilege to hear him, a man of wonderful power. Ordinarily, as a 
minister of the gospel myself, I sit in the pulpit behind a brothei 
minister, and hear him preach to the people, often losing sight of 
Mie tact that he speaks to me as well as to them; but in every sermon 



10 Prefatory Notes. 



of Brother Jones I felt that he was preaching to me. His preaching 
was food to ray soul. It showed me my deficiencies; it comforted 
me it stirred my soul ; it moved me to a higher plane of consecra- 
tior. and sent me forth into my field of work better fitted, as I trust, 
th -in ever before for the service of the Master. 

The man and his power have afforded me a theme for study. 
"What meaneth this?" I have often inquired. The real secret is: 
God has clothed him with power. From the stand-point of a Pres- 
byterian I would say that the man and his work are ordained. His 
earnestness is red-hot. He is a master of human nature. He spoke 
in parables, as it were. His hold on the multitude is phenomenal. 
If oratory consists in convincing and persuading people, making 
them remember his words and think his thoughts, then Sam Jones 
is an orator of the highest order. His work in Nashville, so far as 
I have been able to judge, exhibits every feature of permanence. It 
shows itself among my people in greater spiritual power, deeper love 
for the ordinances of God's house, and in increased attendance upon 
the ministrations of the sanctuary. His work in Nashville will serve 
to mark a new era in the spiritual history of this city. 

Jerry Witherspoon. 

From Rev. C. H. Strickland, D.D., Pastor First Baptist Church. 

Nashville, Tenn., May 30, 1885. 
The man excites my admiration and wonder. He loves men, and 
abhors sin. His work is marvelous, surpassing any thing of the kind 
I have yet witnessed. He certainly has power with God and with 
men. I love the man, and thank God for the vast amount of good he 
has accomplished in this city. C. H. Strickland. 

From Rev. M. B. DeWitt, D.D., Pastor Edgefield Cumb. Pres. Church. 
Nashville, Tenn., June 27, 1885. 
Dear Dr. Leftwich : In writing about Rev. Sam Jones in person, 1 
am sure that prudence will dictate a careful regard for truth and the 
fact that he is a living man, and will read whatever is said in this 
connection. He has a purpose, grand, high, commanding. His whole 
nature is given to God's cause. He displays little fear of men, whether 
as dignitaries of the Church, expounders of theological opinions, rep- 
resentatives of society, or examples of corrupt lives in any form ot 
vice. He calls sins by Saxon names, with emphasis laid on the riglu 
place. I think I never knew a preacher before who could so use wit. 
humor, sarcasm, and denunciation as to make them most effective! v 
contribute to his aim at the sinful hearts of men. His decision <•' 



Prefatory Notes. 11 



character is most pronounced. He plants his foot upon a proposition, 
or course of things, and there he holds it, rock-like. In his work at 
Nashville, many points may be emphasized, but I will lay stress on 
this point: He has greater power over men, grown men, than any man 
I ever saw, I am sure. He led more Christian men to a truer, higher 
plane of godly living, and more ungodly men to a Christian life, 
than any other preacher of whom I have known under similar con- 
ditions. My general estimate of his work is that it is genuine, and 
therefore durable, as it certainly is most potent in swaying the hearts 
of thousands. M. B. DeWitt. 

Fiom Rev. J. H. McNeilly, D.D., Pastor Moore Memorial Presbyterian Church. 

Nashville, Tenn., June 2, 1885. 
Rev. Dr. Leftwieh: After hearing the Kev. Sam P. Jones for three 
weeks, my impressions of him are very distinct. They are my ma- 
ture convictions. He is one of the most consecrated men I ever saw. 
His love for souls is a consuming passion. He has a marvelous gift 
in making the way of life plain. He preaches to the conscience with 
wonderful power. He is perfectly fearless. His originality and hu- 
mor are great helps to the impression he makes. May God long use 
him as an honored instrument indued with a double portion of his 
Spirit ! Fraternally yours, James H. McNeilly. 

From Elder R. Lin Cave, Pastor Church Street Christian Church. 
He has rare powers of thought, expression, and action. He is 
original in his methods, and being obliged to none, has the greater 
attractiveness and influence, as he is thus a constant study and always 
fresh, if not always new. He has superior natural gifts, unusual 
skill in the use of them, and is a marvelous success in his field of la- 
bor. I am sure he is a good man, full of love for God and mankind, 
severely in earnest, and having the courage of his convictions. His 
work here was a truly great one, and large good has come, and 
must continue to come, to the cause of Christ. He certainly in- 
fluenced many who are not usually reached by the ordinary minis- 
try of the Church. He exalted the importance and dignity of the 
Church, and emphasized the absolute necessity of public connection 
with the body of Christ. He deserves praise for reforming much 
that is wrong in the home life, in the Church life, in business life, 
and in social life. The truth in his hands is laade plain and pleas- 
ing and moving. I wish his sermons may be extensively read and 
do much lasting good, though it is preeminently true of him that he 
needs to be heard to be properly appreciated. R. Ljn Cave, 



12 Prefatory Notes. 



From Rev. J. P. Sprowls, D.D., Pastor First Cumb. Pres. Church. 

Nashville, Tenn., June 26, 1885. 

As a preacher Brother Jones is entirely original. If you judge 
him by the rules found in works of homiletics, you become confused 
at once. He is a standard unto himself. In considering him as a 
preacher, you must forget everybody and every thing but the man 
before yc During the three weeks and better I sat under his preach- 
ing, he grew in my estimation wonderfully. He is the best " gospel 
digger" I ever listened to — best to wake up a slumbering Church, 
and to arouse an indifferent world. He is terribly in earnest. He 
believes in and uses home thrusts. This always means conver- 
sions and more consecrated Christian living. He is thoroughly 
honest, not using " aught of pious fraud," or artifice of any kind to 
gain a present end. 

Dr. James Alexander once said: "The people must be made to 
feel that the heart of the preacher is with them." Brother Jones un- 
derstands human nature. He gets right close by you in illustration, 
in appeal, in ridicule, and even in seeming levity. He means me; 
he is my friend. His strong points as a preacher certainly are: 
Taking God's word, pure and simple, as his standard; plainness, ear- 
nestness, directness, and fervency in the application of it. This, ac- 
companied by a sterling common sense and a personal magnetism, 
makes his appeals almost irresistible. 

It is too soon to speak of the durability of his work in our city. 
But the foundation built is so strong that I am almost sure as to the 
permanency of the building. 

The work wrought is a great and a glorious one. May God give 
us wisdom as cultivators! J. P. Sprowls. 

From Rev. G. A. Trenholm, Pastor First Presbyterian Church, Edgefield. 
Edgefield, Tenn., June 18, 1885. 

Rev. W. M. Leftwich, D.D. — Dear Brother: I respond to your re- 
quest with pleasure. When we hear Brother Jones preach we cease 
to inquire, "Where is the secret of his power?" His thrilling pres- 
entation of the gospel, his fearless denunciation of popular sins, his 
sincere sympathy with his fellow-men, his thorough consecration to 
the great work, his confessed dependence on God for all results — 
what other conditions need any one furnish of power with God and 
men? For myself, I can say that I have never had my whole sou) 
so completely brought into subjection to the truth as by the preach- 
ing of Brother Jones. Fraternally yours, G. A. Trenholm. 



SERMONS AND SATIN8& 



SERMON I. 

Grace and Salvation, 

"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to 
all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we 
should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 
looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the 
great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, 
that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself 
a peculiar people, zealous of good works." (Titus ii. 11-14.) 

2J |f WANT to say to Christian people, God is answer- 
jjl ing your prayers. I have heard many things to- 
* day that encourage me. These are index-fingers 
pointing to answered prayers. Thank God, he is a 
prayer-hearing and a prayer-answering God! Many 
things I have heard to-day give evidence of genuine 
Holy Ghost work in this city. I have no confidence 
in the work of any man — I have no confidence in the 
permanency of the work of any man; but I believe 
there is truth in God, and virtue in the blood of Christ, 
and power in the Holy Ghost. If these divine agen- 
cies will work with us, there will be a work done in 
this city that will outlive the stars. To God be all 
the glory, because all the power, all the grace, and all 
the dominion are his. Let the cross come out in all 
its boldness to redeem men. It is to the cross I in- 
vite you. It is in the shadow of the cross that we 
expect hope and life and salvation. 

(13> 



H Sermons and Sayings. 



We invite your prayerful attention to the four verses 
beginning with the eleventh verse of the second chapter 
of Paul to Titus. Of course we have not the time to 
discuss all of the four verses, but we will read and 
discuss them as far as we may. " For the grace of God 
that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." 
This term " grace" is peculiarly a gospel term — a New 
Testament term. It covers all the blessings of the 
past, all the enjoyments of the present, all the hopes 
of the future. We are not only redeemed by grace, 
but we are born by grace, and we live by grace, and 
we are saved by grace. We know not how to estimate 
the value of this grace of God. We generally esti- 
mate the value of an object by what it will bring in 
market, or by what we paid for it. We are not re- 
deemed by corruptible things, such as silver and gold, 
but by the precious blood of the Son of God. Into 
the blood of the Son of God pleading and bleeding in 
the garden of Gethsemane the recording angel dipped 
his pen and wrote: "Peace on earth, good-will toward 
men." It is through the blood of the everlasting cov- 
enant that this grace flows to the earth. The Holy 
Ghost awaited in heaven the coming of the Victim of 
this sacrifice. When the Son's feet touched the streets 
of gold, the Holy Ghost flew right through the win- 
dow and came to earth to sprinkle the world with his 
blood that was to cleanse the nations. 

Mr. Ingersoll says the reason he does not like this 
religion is because it is a bloody religion. I like ii 
because it is a bloody religion; for without the shea 
ding of blood there is no remission of sins. It is th e 
cross that brought me to repentance, that makes m«3 
feel that I want to be better, that surrounds me witl? 



Sermons and Sayings. 15 



gospel influences, that brings salvation in all its full- 
ness unto all men. Thank God for the expression 
"unto all men!" Thank God, I can lay my eyes on 
his word and my hand on my heart and say, I believe 
that Jesus Christ died for me; not only for me, but 
or my wife, for each one of my children, and for you 
and your wives and your children! He has not only 
provided salvation for all mankind, but for each in- 
dividual; and if you should fail to get to heaven, there 
will be a crown in glory that no head will ever wear — 
a palm of victory in heaven no hand will ever wave; 
if you fail to make the port of glory, there will be a 
harp in heaven untouched by angel hands. 

Christ is the propitiation for our sins, and not for 
ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. 
We look for the redemption of the world through 
Jesus Christ. The world can never be redeemed by 
a gospel that excludes a single human being. If you 
search this universe and find one human being not 
redeemed, I believe Jesus Christ would come to earth 
again, and would be nailed to the cross, and suffer and 
die for that one immortal soul. I am very glad the 
pulpits of the earth are coming together on this point. 
Thank God, I have seen some advancement in my day, 
and I hope yet to see the day when every pulpit will 
jump squarely upon the "whosoever will!" Nothing 
less than this can express the great gushing heart of 
God to the race. We are all created on a common 
platform; we are all redeemed on a common plat- 
form. When God gave one a chance he threw the 
gates open to all. Thanks be unto God for a gospel 
that saves me, and is sufficient in its breadth and 
depth for a world of sinners! This grace that bring- 



16 Sermons and Sayings. 



cth salvation hath appeared to all men. The object 
of this grace, primarily, is to teach. Christ was a Di- 
vine Teacher, a Divine Philosopher, and a Divine 
Saviour. This grace of God that bringeth salvation 
hath appeared to all men — not saving us merely, but 
making us worth saving. There are old money-lenders 
in this city who if they were to get to heaven would not 
be there three weeks before they would want to set up a 
sort of corner-lot business. Men must be taught some 
things before they can be saved in the gospel sense. 
Jesus Christ told his disciples to " go forth, teaching 
all nations." The difficulty to-day in China is because 
the people are not taught. We narrow the discussion 
down so that we may first be practical and then be script- 
ural. The great trouble is not that the truth is not 
preached. You never heard a sermon in your life that 
had not in it truth enough to save a thousand souls 
like yours. Every man's heart is so filled up with 
error that he has no room for the truth. It is a phil- 
osophic truth that no two substances can occupy the 
same space at the same time. It is because there is 
not room for them. If God will empty your heads and 
hearts of all the error you have packed away in them, 
I will preach enough truth to save you all to-night. 
We say every man is full of his own opinions. "My 
opinion is so and so. It is no harm to dance. It is 
no harm to play cards. I can live just as good out of 
the Church as in it. There is no harm in a dram." 
You compromising old hypocrite you! When bar- 
rooms are set up on every corner, an old hypocrite 
will wipe his mouth and say there is no harm in a 
dram. It takes all the ministers and praying moth- 
srs, and the best influences of God and angels, to keep 



Seemons and Sayings. 17 



you up out of a drunkard's grave; and yet you will 
wipe your mouth and drink on! There is no harm in 
this or that. Look me in the face as an honest man; 
let us meet these facts as we find them. That old Col- 
onel will sit out there on the street and pronounce his 
opinion, so and so. Young men will say, " It is my opin- 
ion." They got that from the old Colonel, and he got 
it fresh from hell. They all say, "My opinion." Very 
few men think. One or two great minds do the think- 
ing for Europe. One or two great minds do the think- 
ing for America. This city has very few thinking 
men in it, but every thing in town is chock full of 
opinions. We get incased in these opinions, and we 
are absolutely invulnerable to God's own truth and 
power. A man incased in his own opinions is beyond 
the reach of the power of God. See the old farmer 
in the house smoking quietly: a storm gathers, and a 
cloud loaded with electricity is overhead; the light- 
ning strikes the rod on the chimney and throws itself 
into the earth, and the farmer sits and smokes as if 
nothing had happened. The gospel of Christ flashes 
above the heads of the multitude and descends with 
sin-killing power, and strikes this outside incasement 
of every man's own opinions, and runs off into the earth. 
The man walks out and says, " The preacher has his 
opinion, and I have mine." No man that walks this 
earth has a right to an opinion on a moral question 
when God speaks. On geological, astronomical, and 
doctrinal questions, it is your right to hold opinions. 
Do not misunderstand me. I say on moral questions 
upon which God has spoken. The only way to tell 
whether a thing is straight or crooked is to apply the 
straight-edge, and not stand like a fool guessing at it 
2 



18 Sermons and Sayings. 



God tells me in this book what is right and what is 
wrong. When God speaks out let all the world stand 
still and listen. Trace the opinion to its origin; take 
the back-track on all opinions, and you will tree them 
every one in hell. They are going back to hell, and 
will take you with them. " It is my opinion, so and so." 
Shut your mouth, you blabbing fool! The less sense 
a fellow has, and the less he thinks, the more opinions 
he has. You must live soberly, righteously, godly, in 
this world. The Bible was not given to teach me the 
way the heavens go, but to teach me the way to go to 
heaven. Mr. So and So is a mighty smart man, and 
he does not agree with the preachers. Yes; there are 
plenty of brains in hell. You understand that, do n't 
you? I despise to see a man who knows more than 
everybody else in the community, and who does not 
know enough to behave himself. Some men have not 
got sense enough to be decent. God have mercy on 
men who have not got sense enough to be faithful to 
the vows made to their wives! I say to you all to- 
night that some of the most cultured men are the 
most corrupt men. What is culture worth if it is but 
the whitewash on a rascal? I would rather be in 
heaven learning my A, B, C's than sitting in hell read- 
ing Greek. I would rather my boy would have hardly 
sense enough to run a straight furrow in my field 
than to be as some of the sensible men of this city 
to-night. Keep my boy poor and honest, and let him 
die a fool. If you are doing wrong, quit it. About 
twelve years ago the grace of God came gushing into 
my heart, and I knew that I was a sinner and ought 
to quit sinning. That lesson has lingered with me 
from that hour to this. The poorest, weakest man in 



Seemons and Sayings. 19 



this city may decide to-night, and God will Lelp him 
to the point where he will never need help. The devil 
tempted me sometimes till my knees got weak. But 
God's grace is sufficient to make you quit doing wrong 
and go to doing right, in the name of Christ. That 
is my religion. 

What is the difference between what I was fifteen 
years ago and what I am to-night ? I have never be- 
lieved any thing since that time that I did not believe 
before. I believed before, but did not do. I have now 
been a believer and a doer for twelve years. That is the 
difference between a Christian and a sinner. It is faith 
in Christ; it is following, loving, revering him. I have 
never been converted, if a man must believe some- 
thing afterward that he didn't believe before. It is 
not believing so much as it is doing. " Show me your 
faith," said James, "without your works, and I will 
show you my faith by my works." Now you are get- 
ting down to facts. I believed and did not; now I be- 
lieve and do. The teaching is that you must quit doing 
wrong. I do not see how some of you get along with 
yourselves. You must reach the point when you will 
say, " I will quit it; " for you can never get religion till 
you do that. Religion is quitting the wrong and de- 
termining on a better life. I expect if some of us 
good brethren had been sitting in that sacred company 
and heard the words, " Come and follow me," we would 
have called Matthew to one side, and said, "Hold on, 
we are not converted yet!" The best evidence that a 
man has got religion is that he has quit doing wrong 
and is doing right. Birds do not sing sweeter nor 
trees look prettier. I saw that in a book once, and I 
don't go much on it since. I am running on this. 



20 Sermons and Sayings. 



that 1 have quit my meanness. I believe in a religion 
that reforms a man from head to foot, through and 
through. God never regenerates a man until he re- 
forms himself. There is nothing in grace that will 
make you a sober man with a quart of whisky in your 
itomach. There is nothing in the grace of God that 
<san keep a man clean while he is leading a licen- 
tious life. You must place yourself so that God 
can get an under-hold of you. You all knew what 
that meant when you were boys at school. When I 
v^as a boy I could throw another very quickly if he 
^ould give me the under-hold. At first I abandoned 
the sins I could get along best without; but finally, when 
I found that I was making no progress, I lumped my 
sins in one pile, stacked them on the old bridge, and 
stuck a torch to the bridge. I am now for heaven or 
nothing. 

Quit your meanness, and tell God you mean it, if 
you wish to be saved. You need not be skipping 
around the Lord with the devil's old musket on 
four shoulder. Conversion means to quit the wrong 
and begin the right. Conversion that does not mean 
that I have quit all that is wrong, and mean to hold 
to it, does not mean conversion. It is like one neigh- 
bor going to the house of another and saying : " Give 
me a thousand dollars; I have lived here ten years, 
and have not burned your house, nor crippled your 
children." Don't imagine that because you have 
burned up no meeting-house and killed no preachers 
you will get in at the fool's door. You will never 
get in on that line. You must not only quit doing 
wrong, but you must begin to do right. You must 
be good every day in the week, and good all the time 



Sermons and Mayings. 21 



I do n't understand these men who are pious Sunday 
morning at the eleven o'clock service, and go home 
and put on their every-day clothes and their meanness 
— pious in Nashville, but the devil's own dog in New 
York City. I will be the Lord's everywhere; I will 
not be cast down nor lifted up. Heaven is on a dead 
level with a good man. " I am having my ups and 
downs," said the old man. Yes; you will be down in 
hell some day. Never quarrel with God, nor with 
your condition in life. Job was one of this sort. 
Cranmer and Ridley were burned in the reign of 
Mary in England. When the clothes were burned 
from his flesh, when his arm was on fire and in a blaze, 
old Cranmer looked over to Ridley, and said: "Be of 
good cheer; we are lighting a fire that will burn round 
the world." 

We need a revival of downright honesty in the 
Church of God. There are many men in the Church 
boarding with their wives. We must meet the fact 
that we have got no character as a Church. Go to 
one of these stores and try to run your Methodism on 
them. The store-keeper will say : " Come in and look 
at my books, and you will not blame me for not tak- 
ing on more." We think it is no harm to swindle a 
brother in the Church. An honest man is the nob] est 
work of God. The old Church has gravitated down- 
ward until the world backs water on her. Sir, you 
can't ditch her off. Go after an old sinner, and he 
will say : "Jones, pay me what you owe me, and I v, ill 
join." I thank God that a poor man can be an honest 
man! The devil bankrupted me. I got religion and 
went to preaching, and was several hundred dollars in 
debt. One said: "I have confidence in Sam; he is a 



22 Sermons and Sayings. 



good, clever fellow; but I would like kirn better if he 
would pay his debts." But I went on until I paid the 
last dollar of it. If you want to pay your debts, peo- 
ple know it. God pity the man that is boarding with 
his wife in a fifty-thousand-dollar mansion, and is 
cheating the widow and orphan! I want to see the 
day when you can sell the shirt off of a man's back. 
A Hardshell asked credit of a merchant. He said he 
could not credit him ; but when he learned that he was 
a Hardshell, he called him back and said to him, "I 
will sell you all you want on credit." Bighteously I 
will do right. We want honest men in the Church, 
that will do what they say they will do. There is 
many a good man who cannot pay his debts. There 
are men in this city struggling against difficulties that 
would break an angel's heart. But the grace of God 
that bringeth salvation will be sufficient to save you if 
you will " deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and live 
soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 
looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appear- 
ing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 
who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us 
from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar 
people, zealous of good works." If God will give us 
such a measure of his Holy Spirit that the Church 
will be purified and sanctified until we will be a pe- 
culiar people, zealous of good works, then the grace 
of God that bringeth salvation will appear unto every 
sinner in this city and save him from all ungodli- 
ness and worldly lusts, so that henceforth he will 
live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present 
world. 



Sermons and Sayings. 23 



SAYINGS. 

I can't bribe God's grand jury, nor defy the Court 
that tries me at the last day. 

I photograph your ugliness, and you sit there and 
laugh at it. You ought to be ashamed. 

" I have doubts," says one. Well, you just quit 
your meanness, and you will quit doubting. 

If a man has n't enough religion to pray in his fam- 
ily, he has n't enough to take him to heaven. 

If you are ready to say to-night, " I 've done, I 've 
quit," then you are right where God can put his hand 
on you and save you. 

What is culture worth if it is but the whitewash 
of a rascal ? I would rather be in heaven learning my 
A, B, C's than in hell reading Greek. 

Everybody ought to keep good company. There is 
not an angel in heaven that would not be corrupted 
by the company that some of you keep. 

If you will let me, I will cut the last ligament that 
binds you to a life of sin, and let you swim out into 
the bottomless, boundless ocean of God's saving love. 

One sin is enough to cut the soul adrift from God. 
I 've seen men who were not afraid to die; but I never 
saw a man who was not afraid of the judgment-bar of 
God. 




SERMON II. 
Let Your Light So Shine Before Men, 

u Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good 
works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." (Matt. v. 16.) 

! j|E invite your prayerful attention to the sixteenth 
verse of* the fifth chapter of St. Matthew: "Let 
your light so shine before men, that they may 
see your good works, and glorify your Father which is 
in heaven." We will read two or three of the preceding 
verses: "Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt 
have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It 
is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and 
to be trodden under foot of men." 

Ah, my brethren in Christ, how I have seen that 
picture until my blood ran cold, and until I felt like I 
wanted to die on my knees! The Church of God Al- 
mighty trodden under the foot of this world! Instead 
of being like an arm bringing the world to God, the 
world has got us under foot, trampling us down, and 
we dare not say a word. God help us not to get in any 
such fix again! "Ye are the light of the world. A 
city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do 
men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on 
a candlestick." "Let your light so shine before men, 
that they may see your good works, and glorify your 
Father which is in heaven." 

This service shall be held especially in the interest 
of professed Christians. Generally these services are 
directed to all present. I know God expects us mem- 
(24) 



Sekmons and Sayings. 25 



hers of the Church to live right, and he has got a 
right to expect it of us; and yet we members of the 
Church have as much right to do wrong as anybody 
in the world. There is not a man in this State who 
has got any more right to get drunk and curse and 
steal than I have. All the difference between a mem- 
ber of the Church and a non-professor is, one has 
made a profession and taken the oath of allegiance to 
God, the other has not; but the latter is just as much 
bound by every moral obligation and principle to serve 
God and do right. Will you give him your prayers? 
It would be better if you had not come to-day if you 
do not intend to give him your prayers. Going to 
church is like going shopping: you generally get what 
you go for — no more and no less. A woman will go 
into a store with a hundred thousand dollars' worth of 
goods all around her, buy a paper of pins and walk 
out; that is all she came for. I have seen the store- 
house of God's grace packed from cellar to ceiling, 
and I have seen men go in and gather up an expres- 
sion of the preacher and go home. He is a little fel- 
low! If I was your wife, I would get you a little tin 
horse with wheels and let you drag it through the 
house! Let us take a broader view of these things; 
and I pray that all the citizens of this State who came 
here to-day may carry a blessing home to their families 
and their towns. I want to see blessings carried out 
until this State — north, south, east, and west — shall 
be surrendered to God; and I thank God that the fire 
is catching all over the State. 

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may 
see your good works, and glorify your Father which 
is in heaven." Brethren, amid the roar and rush of 



Sermons and Sayings. 



this nineteenth century, we hear very little of the 
voice of God. The roar of commerce, the click of the 
telegraph, and the whistle of the engine, have well- 
nigh drowned out the voice of God. But, amid all 
these rough trials and present transactions, it is well 
enough to put our hand up to our ear now and then 
and look up and hear what God has to say. Let us 
listen to that still small voice that never misled a man 
a step, and never deceived a man's soul; let us listen 
to that voice which, if you hear it aright, will make 
you wise unto salvation. 

" Let your light so shine." Such a string of mono- 
syllabic utterances — a string of pearls! "Let your 
light so shine before men, that they may see your good 
works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." 
What a string of pearls this sentence is! There are 
only four words in the sentence of more than one 
syllable. What a preacher Christ was! I have often 
thought: If I ever get to heaven, I will hunt up some 
sensible man who heard this sermon, and get him to 
tell me the manner of its delivery and the effect upon 
the multitude. How the face of Christ did glow and 
glisten and glimmer under the pressure and power of 
the truth of the words he was delivering! We little 
preachers think that we are doing first-rate if we take 
a text and announce about three propositions and 
discuss them for an hour. But do you know that 
Christ in this sermon announced and discussed one 
hundred and twenty different propositions in the com- 
pass of half an hoar? No man ever talked like Christ 
or thought like Christ. I sometimes think that if he 
had had a company of angels listening to him it would 
have been a grander sermon still. If he had had n 



Sermons and Sayings. 27 



congregation of his peers, O what a sermon! But he 
came down, and down as close to us as he could get. 
He took our own words, and these are but a few of 
the words uttered by him on this occasion. 

"Let your light so shine before men." These are 
monosyllabic utterances, but there is much meaning 
in each one. These words fairly bend and break un- 
der the force and power of their meaning. 

"Let your light." What is light? We can only 
see it as human eyes can see it. Its essence is love 
to God; its principle is faith in God, and its develop- 
ment is obedience to God. These three — faith, love, 
and obedience — are the light of the world and the salt 
of the earth. 

I believe in God. Sinners don't read my Bible, 
but they read me. You read your Bible, and sinners 
read you as a professor of Christianity. And, brethren, 
they watch you and your life, and they thus see whether 
that Bible is true or not. And I will say this much, 
some of them do n't believe a word of it, because you 
tell them you believe the Bible and live as you do. 
Brethren, you tell me a man is anxious to go to Chat- 
tanooga, and he will let five thousand trains run out 
toward Chattanooga and never get aboard one of them! 
Tell me such nonsense as that! The infidelity that is 
hurting the Church in this nineteenth century is not 
theoretical infidelity; the infidelity that is demoraliz- 
ing the Church and the world is practical infidelity: 
the fellow that believes the Bible and won't do one 
tiling. Now you have got a fool and a rascal mixed 
in one comjjound. It is the most awful compound 
that Christ ever tackled. He believes in prayer-meef 
ings, but he has not been to one this year; he believe* 



28 Sermons and Sayings. 



in the missionary cause, but lie gets out with the least 
he can give; he believes in family prayer, but you 
can't prove it by his wife and children. He goes on the 
principle that he that believeth not shall be damned, 
and he believes in every thing. If your sort was put on 
the market and everybody felt toward you as I do, you 
would not bring much — you would not. 

Faith. I believe. How do you know ? Watch me. 
Watch my life. You ask me if I believe in family 
prayer — J refer you to my wife and children; you ask 
me if I believe in paying my preacher, and I refer 
you to my elder, or steward. If a man asks me if I 
believe in prayer-meetings, I refer him to my pastor. 
Let those who are witnesses answer for me. 

Faith. I believe, and to demonstrate that I believe 
I am obeying. That is it. And all we want in this 
universe is a Church that believes the word in the 
sense that they will do like their Bible says. You 
don't ask whether a thing is right or wrong; you ask, 
Does everybody do it? Your husband and everybody 
else does that; and if everybody does that, it is just as 
good a reason as you want for doing any thing. If 
everybody dances, your children will dance too. Your 
children can't get into society unless they dance, be- 
cause everybody dances. You can't be sociable unless 
you have wine on your dinner-table; everybody has 
wine. There is many a woman in this country who is 
responsible for a great many things she does not think 
jof. I want to see the day in this country when no de- 
cent woman will put any thing on her table that will 
make a fool of her husband. The biggest fool woman 
in this State is the woman who will go to the closet and 
get the demijohn and bring it out and fix up a drink 



Sermons and Sayings. 29 



for ker husband. You have not sense enough to keep 
out of the fire; your place is in the lunatic asylum. 
I believe in sobriety. How do you know that? Be- 
cause there is not a thing in my home that will make 
a person drunk. That is good grounds If there is 
any thing in the world you fellows in these towns 
around here need preaching on it is on the liquor 
question. You have got enough liquor within a hun- 
dred miles of here to damn the whole earth if you 
poured it down men's throats. This liquor traffic has 
come down to where it is a question of blood and 
death and hell. These women are getting tired of 
seeing their husbands go down to drunkards' graves; 
these mothers are tired of seeing their sons go drunk 
to hell. 

"Let your light so shine." I believe in sobriety, 
because I touch not, taste not, handle not the unclean 
thing. I do n't care what a man says he believes with 
his lips; I want to know with a vengeance what he 
says with his life and actions. The only difference 
between two men is the difference in the way they 
live. The difference between the best man in this 
State and the biggest scoundrel in this State is the 
difference in the way they live. This is practically 
true. I believe with all my heart, and in demonstra- 
tion of this I will do the very thing that God says do, 
and I am leaving off the very thing that God says 
not do. 

Lo\e is its essence. Brethren, a man is never free 
until love abounds in his heart toward God and man. 
The freest man in this State is the man who loves 
God most and loves his neighbor as himself. There 
is no law in heaven or earth that fetters or proscribes a 



30 Sermons and Sayings. 



character like that. The Legislature of Georgia meets 
about twice every year, and I am there, generally pass- 
ing through, when they are in session; but I never 
have been before them asking them to pass a law to 
make my wife good to my children. Why? Because 
my wife loves my children with all her heart, and we 
do n't need any law to make her kind to them. . She 
does too much for them. You will not harm anybody 
you love. It is the devil in you that makes legisla- 
tures and sheriffs necessary. If everybody on earth 
loved God supremely and his neighbor as himself, then 
we would have a heaven on earth, and we would need 
no more restraints on earth than they need in heaven. 
Love. Love everybody. We need brotherly love. 
We members of the Church — Methodists, Baptists, 
Presbyterians — O what a grand sight to see every 
Christian man love every other Christian man! But 
it is a sad thing to see members of the Church getting 
into each other's way, and talking about each ocher, 
and cheating each other, and drinking with one an- 
other. They are not the Lord's lambs you see at that; 
they are the devil's goats. Love sets a man free. The 
best way in the world to kill a fellow is to love him to 
death; then you don't have to bury him. Alexander 
the Great conquered this world; so did Napoleon. 
Poor Alexander the Great died a conquered wretch; 
poor Napoleon died a banished, conquered wretch on 
the island of St. Helena. Napoleon said, while on 
that mid-ocean isle: "I, Alexander the Great, and 
Charlemagne conquered by force, and founded our 
kingdoms on force, and our kingdoms have melted 
away; but Jesus Christ founded his kingdom on love, 
and to-day millions of men would die for him." Jesae 



Sermons and Sayings. 31 



Christ said: "Do good to tliem that despitefully use 
you, and pray for them that persecute you." I used 
to think when a man mistreated me, "Why do n't the 
Lord let me jump on him and beat him? The reason 
is the Lord do n't want to protect that rascal ; he wants 
to protect me. When Jesus Christ wanted to conquer 
his enemies he died for them; and he has well-nigh 
conquered them. Love begets sympathy. And if 
we had a little more of the milk of human kindness 
in this world, what a world we would have! I like to 
see a fellow bent on doing what the Lord tells him to 
do. This is the only test that lasts. It is the final 
test of your love to God. Christ says: "He that saith, 
I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a 
liar, and the truth is not in him." Hereby we do know 
that we know him if we keep his commandments 
Light is love and obedience mingled with life. Faith 
works by love, purifies the heart, and overcomes the 
world. Have you got that? Then you have got 
light. 

Light is a strange something. What is light? It 
is a very active principle. A few hours ago this world 
was covered with darkness. I see the oxen asleep 
over there. I see the birds perched in quiet on the 
limb of that tree, and I see humanity stretched in 
slumber. Look at this world! It is true it is asleep. 
God wants to wake up this world. Does he go down 
to that field and hit that old ox on the horns? Does 
he shake that limb to wake up that bird ? Does he 
come to my house and knock in order to wake me up? 
No; he just lets the sun peep over the eastern hills, 
and the old ox wakes up, and the birds commence sing- 
ing, and humanity wakes up to another day. Let th* 



B2 Sermons and Sayings. 



darkness come, inactivity is here; let light come all 
is activity. 

Nine o'clock, german club; nine o'clock, progress- 
ive eucher club. The Church is abed and asleep be- 
fore that time, and you can just german on. If there 
is a thing in this world that I have a contempt for 
and can't express it, it is the german. I suppose 
some of you people through th* country do n't have 
germans. It is about all this city can do to rig oat 
enough spiderlegs for a german. I reckon this city 
can ship you a few when you want them. To see any 
average little town try to put on airs! If I were you, 
sister, I would call it a ball; and a ball-room is so in- 
decent that I would not let my cook go into one of 
them. This is enough to hurt your feelings, ain't it? 
Your feelings! The less sense a girl has the more 
feeling she has. The checks and balances must 
operate. What you lack in sense you make up in 
feeling. I wish some of you ball-room girls could 
hear the boys talk after the thing is over. What we 
want in this country is a Church so alive to God and 
with so much light that these deeds of darkness will 
not be allowed in our borders. Did you ever hear of 
a ball in the day-time? Did you ever hear of a lot 
of men getting together and having a man's german? 
There ain't a boy in this town who would cross the street 
to hag another boy. As sure as you are born, these 
things are based upon the consciousness of sex. My 
fellow-citizens, it is not the liars and the thieves and 
cut-throats that are hurting your Church; it is the tide 
of worldliness that is sweeping over your Churches 
and towns that is damning your homes. Let your 
light so shine upon your Church! If there are any 



Sermons and Sayings. 33 



people of the city here this evening, I am not speak- 
ing to them. I am speaking to the visitors. 

Children of the day, and children of the light! 
Light is an active principle, and will put us to work. 
The Church is the light of the world. You watch 
the lamp-lighters on the street. They walk to that 
lamp and light it, and then walk to another and light 
it, and so on until each successive burner is lighted; 
and so light jumps to light and ray to ray, and now 
the whole town is filled with light. So the Church is 
the light of the world by catching fire and jumping 
from heart to heart. 

"Let your light so shine! " I can see frequently in 
the utterances of Christ where he seemed to be utter- 
ly lost for a word. There was no word that would do. 
He searched human language in vain for an adjective 
or descriptive that would do. And he just said "so." 
" Let your light so shine! " Once he wanted to tell the 
world how God loved it, and he said, "God so loved 
the world." One time I was in a country church at 
night. It was the darkest night I ever saw. It was 
perfectly black. Directly a man walked out with one 
of these reflecting lanterns; and when he turned the 
reflector in front everybody in front could see like 
daylight, and to everybody behind it was as dark as 
pitch; and when he turned it behind, everybody be- 
hind could see and those in front were in the dark. 
When he turned his light in front, he let his light so 
ehine that those in front could see; and when he 
turned it behind him, he let his light so shine that 
those behind could see. God says, "Let your light so 
shine that every one may see your good works, and 
glorify your Father which is in heaven." 



M Sermons and Sayings. 



"No man lighteth a candle and pntteth it under a 
bushel." I have gone into communities and found a 
light with a bushel over it; and I would walk up to 
the bushel and kick it off, and then the owner would 
get mad and say I put the light out. You turn a 
bushel over a light and it will go out. Some of you 
have turned the bushel of neglect down over youi 
spiritual light, and it has gone out. Some of you 
have turned the bushel of indifference down over 
your light, and it has gone out. There are some 
places where Christian light will not burn. My father 
once had two Irishmen digging a well, and they dug 
about five days; and then they were paid some money, 
and they went off and got on a spree, and they spreed 
about a week. When they came back ready for work 
they uncovered the well and asked for a candle. 
"Well," my mother thought, "Pat and Mike ain't 
sober yet." But they got the candle, and tied a rope 
around it and let it down in the well, and when it got 
near the bottom it flickered and went out; and Pat 
said, "We can't go down there — there is death down 
there." And they went away and got some dry brush 
and built a fire in the well; and then they let the can- 
dle down again, and it burned all right. Then Mike 
said, " Pat, you can get your spade and go down — there 
is no danger." Before you go down into some places, 
my dear friends, you put your light — that is, your God, 
your preacher, and your Bible — down and see how 
Ihey look. Now, the next time you start to a bar-room 
you push your preacher in there, and see how he looks. 
The nbxt time you start to a ball-room you put your Bi- 
ble, your preacher, and God in. God expects every 
man to be as good as lie wants his preacher to be. 



Sermons and Sayings. 35 



We say again, this light is not only an active prin- 
ciple, it is a developing principle. I went to a circus 
once. You old sneak! you go yet. Before I went in 
I looked around, and I saw them drawing a big bun- 
dle of canvas along; and they dragged it up to a fur- 
nace, and they put this piece of canvas over the fur- 
nace, and by and by it was a well-rounded, symmetric- 
al balloon; and as soon as it was thoroughly inflated, 
its tendency was upward. Then a man got in the 
basket, and it carried him upward; and this balloon 
that it took six men to pull along awhile ago would 
now carry fifty men up. There are some old wagon- 
sheets here that it would take six men to drag to 
prayer-meeting, and to some of them you would have 
to hitch a locomotive-engine. Bring that same old 
flabby fellow and get him over the grace-generating 
power of God Almighty, and let his soul get inflated 
with divine love — the love of God and man — and that 
same person that it took six men to get to prayer- 
meeting now wants to take ten persons up with hiiL 
to heaven. Brother, quit that old wagon-sheet busi- 
ness! 

I have heard it said that a big nose is a good thing 

.( —it is a sign of intellectuality; that a big mouth is 

r a sign of character, of great character; a big chin 
is a good sign — a sign of courage; big ears are a 
sign of generosity. I expect some of you pastors 

f ought to get some ear fertilizer. There are more 
little 'pos sum -eared Church-members over this coun- 
try than you can count. I want to tell you, brethren, 

, that it takes more money to run one old red-nosed 

drunkard than it does to run any member of the 

{ Church in this city. If it is better to be sober than 



86 Sermons and Sayings. 



drunk, if it is better to go to heaven than hell, then it is 
time for us to begin to shut our mouths about what 
little we pay. Money, money, money! I have spent 
more money in ono night on one drunk — and I say it 
with shame — than some of you members ever paid in 
your lives to your Church; and I never grunted ths 
next morning. That is coming down pretty low. 
Brother Barbee, do you know that you have five hun- 
dred members in your Church that don't average a 
cent a year to the Church? What do you say to that? 
He says, "I ain't a-playing." 

Developing principle! If there is any thing in this 
world I admire it is a man with a big soul — a soul big 
enough for God to come in and live with him, and for 
the angels to come'in and sit down and be at home 
forever. God give us a soul on fire, and growing and 
leveloping in divine light! Brother, is your soul 
growing every day? Little bits of souls! Develop- 
ing principle — something that makes me grow up to 
the standard of a good man in the best and highest 
sense of the •■ word. Light is an active, developing 
principle. It will put me to work, and put me to 
growing; and that is what we want. Let your light 
so shine that every one will see your good works. A 
great many people, with what little religion they have, 
will run out in the corner and sit down and say, "God 
save me and my wife, and my son John and his wife, 
us four and no more! " That is the sort of religion that 
is cursing the world. The true principle of a good man 
is, the more he gets the more he wants; and the more 
he gets the more he wants others to have. When a 
man says, "It is all I can do to manage my own af- 
fairs; I have no time to talk about anybody else," he 



Sermons and Sayings. 3 ? j 



is in the biggest, broadest road to hell. That is what 
is the matter with the foreign missions. You will 
hear people say: "Let us Christianize America, and 
then let us go across the waters. I do n't believe in 
sending the gospel to China while we have so many 
heathen at home." But the Christianity of Jesus 
Christ makes the heathen Chinee my next-door neigh- 
bor. A Christianity that sweeps around the world — 
that is the sort of Christianity we want; a Christian- 
ity that locks its arms around the world. " Let your 
light so shine that others may see your good works, 
and glorify your Father which is in heaven." 

I want every liberal man in this city to let every 
other liberal man know about his liberality. Chris- 
tianity will never be what it ought to be as long as 
Christian institutions go a-begging. Don't let your 
ireasury become depleted any more. Go on, and do 
something; and do n't do it in such a guarded way that 
nobody can discover what you are doing while you are 
working for God and truth, but go out in the world, 
and do the thing that God would have you do. 

I have talked over an hour. This may be the last 
time I shall ever look you in the face. Let us go to 
our towns and homes and go to work for God. Let 
us begin to let our light shine ; and then by and by 
the reward will come, and we will go up higher. 1 
do n't know how many of you from various towns are 
members of the Church, but I want every one of 
you to go home and pray for the welfare of every one 
else; and pray and work for God to bless your town. 



38 Sebmgns and Sayings. 



SAYINGS. 

Most men when they feel mean feel natural. 

Society is a heartless old wretch; and if you don't 
get out of it you will go to hell with it. 

If there is any one thing in this world that I have 
more contempt for than I can express, it is the ger- 
man. 

Theke are old money-lenders in this city who if 
they were to get to heaven would not be there three 
weeks before they would want to set up a brokerage 
and corner-lot business. 

I have gone into communities and found the bush- 
els over the lights, and I would kick them off; and 
then the owners would get mad, and say I pat out 
their lights; but when you turn the bushel over a 
light it will go out —that's it. 

I would rather associate with a dog than with a 
profane swearer. This may sound strange; but I 
know what I am talking about. A man. may associate 
with a dog until he becomes doggish; but a swearer 
can make him hellish. A man's affinities determine 
who he is, and what he is. 
S- Going to church is like going shopping: you gen- 
' ei ally get what you go for — no more, no less. A wom- 
I an will go into a store where there is a hundred thou- 
sand dollars' worth of goods, buy a paper of pins, and 
walk out. That was all she came for. You get about 
» what you come to church for. 




SERMON III. 
Prisoners of Hope. 

"Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope." (ZecliaiiaL 
c. 12.) 

Y brethren, according to your faith so it will be 
unto you. We invite your attention to the 
twelfth verse of the ninth chapter of the 
prophecies of Zechariah. Let every utterance be 
guided by the Divine Spirit. There are five hundred 
Christian people that I hope will be so busy praying 
that they will not notice a word I shall say. 

The all-absorbing theme with God and angels and 
good men is the salvation of the living, not the salva- 
tion of men who lived a hundred years ago — they have 
enjoyed their privileges, they have had their oppor- 
tunities, they have met their destinies ; not the salva- 
tion of men that shall live a hundred years hence — ■ 
they have yet to be born, they have yet to enjoy these 
privileges and opportunities; but the all-absorbing 
theme that engages the great heart of God and the 
great heart of the Church in all worlds is the salva- 
tion of the men and women who live and walk and 
talk on the face of the earth to-day. Is it not passing 
strange that a subject should so engage the heart of 
God and angels, and the good of all the earth, and yet 
that a man with an immortal soul should be disinter- 
ested on this momentous question? Is not that you, 
sir? and you, sir? Are there not everywhere disin- 
terested parties in all the universe of God? We have 
an exhortation for you. I wish you could lose sight 



40 Sermons and Sayings. 



of the fact that there are any men in this town excej I 
you and the preacher, and that we are a±one with Go* I 
Do you realize that God talks to you — God whispurg 
to you, warns you, exhorts you? Salvation or damna- 
tion is a personal matter. Nobody will die for }ou* 
nobody will stand in your place at the judgment- bar 
of God. The question of salvation and damnation ir 
a personal question. God help us to look at this ques- 
tion as men and women on the way to the judgment- 
bar of God! 

There are three classes of prisoners in the moral 
universe without hope, and there are three classes of 
prisoners with hope. It is well enough for us some- 
times to stop long enough to locate ourselves. Where 
am I? To what point of longitude and latitude have 
I drifted? A ship at sea must not only know that it 
is on the way from Liverpool to New York, but must 
know where it is every moment. That sailor who 
knows only that he is on his way from Liverpool to 
New York is lost at sea. We say there are three 
classes of prisoners without hope. I stick to my Bi- 
ble. The first class are the angels who kept not their 
first estate, but sinned against God and were cast 
down to hell, and are bound in chains of everlasting 
darkness. We are assured that the angels that fell 
from their high estate have never had a gospel note 
or a gospel invitation. How fearful to contemplate 
the fall from such heights down to such depths! I 
know not how to sympathize with angels. I never 
saw an angel. They know nothing of wrinkles, and old 
age, and the grave. There are other angels — the lost 
souls of men and women who have lived amid just 
such opportunities as you and I have to-night, and 



Sermons and sayings. 41 



who have died impenitent and gone into eternity im- 
penitent. It may be good doctrine that " as long as 
the lamp holds out to burn, the vilest sinner may re- 
turn," but whatever repenting and believing you and 
I do we must do it this side of the grave-yard. What- 
ever may be the space of time between the present 
moment and your dying-pillow, that is all the space 
in which you can make your peace with God. 

Life, with its three-score years and ten, is said to 
be like a tale that is told; like grass that groweth up 
in the morning, and is cut down and withereth. Life 
is but one step from the cradle to manhood, but 
one step from manhood to old age, and but one step 
from old age to the grave. The few moments spent 
in this tent to-night are but a few moments we spend 
on our way to the bar of God. 

The second class are the men and women who have 
lived amid the gospel privileges of this city and 
America. They are numbered by the thousands and 
the millions — including, it may be, your father, your 
son, your daughter, your next-door neighbor. O have 
I ever shaken the hand of a man on earth who is this 
moment a prisoner without hope forever? While the 
gospel of the Son of God peals out in the ears of the 
multitude its grace and beauty, those ears will never 
hear the gospel again. Mother, have you ever prayed 
for that boy since the doctors pronounced him dead? 
Brother, have you ever prayed for your neighbor since 
the black crape was hung on his door-knob ? In this 
life only Ave repent. There is no repentance beyond 
the grave. I have preached the gospel in many States. 
1 count it the greatest of privileges to preach the gos- 
pel of the Son of God. If God were to call me to 



42 Sermons and Sayings. 



China I would go there with as willing a heart as if 1113 
wife were to call me home. There is one place where 
I never have preached the gospel — that is out here in 
the cemetery. I will never preach the gospel among 
the tombstones of the city of the dead. There is no 
hope or device in that city. While we have life there 
is hope; but when the candle of life is put out we 
cease to pray forever. I have preached the gospel to 
the sons of men, and while many have come to Christ 
there are those who are this moment out of the range 
of the gospel of God and beyond his mercy forever. 
Shall I preach to a man to-night who will realize in 
eternity that he is a prisoner without hope forever? 
There are men who sit within the sound of my voice 
to-night who if their hearts stop beating while I am 
preaching will be prisoners without hope forever. 

Brethren, another class of prisoners without hope 
are the men and women in this city vrko are just as 
certain to be damned as they live and walk on the 
face of the earth to-day. You have men in this city 
who have not heard the gospel in thirty years, who 
will never hear another gospel-sermon. I once made 
this proposition: If there is a man in this house who 
feels in his heart that nobody prays for him, I want 
him to give me his hand, and leave here with the as- 
surance that one prays for him. It is something to 
know that some one prays for me. The most lonely 
feeling that overtakes an immortal spirit on its pil- 
grimage to eternity is the feeling that nobody prays 
for him. It is true, O prisoner without hope, that 
while the gospel appeals to others, and moves others, 
and saves others, and while others yield, one is taken 
and another is left. I wonder which man in this tent 



Sekmons and Sayings 43 



to-night is just as certain to be damned as he hears 
my voice this moment. I received a letter from Knox- 
ville this evening. The writer says: "I see from the 
press that you have offered five hundred dollars re- 
ward for any man who will take an oath before a jus- 
tice of the peace that he does not want to be saved — 
does not want to go to heaven. I will take a solemn 
oath that I do not want to be saved, and do not want 
to go to heaven." He not only gives his name, but his 
address. I said to myself, O mortal man, to what depths 
we can go! And yet, you are doing that for noth- 
ing. A man signs his own spiritual death-warrant for 
five hundred dollars! You sign, seal, and deliver your 
spiritual and eternal death-warrant for nothing, O for 
nothing! 

The wretch condemned with life to part 
Still, still on hope relies, 

And every pang that rends the heart 
Bids expectation rise. 

Infinite despair, hover over me! I should never ea 
again if I knew that I had no hope of heaven. There 
is not a soul in eternity to-night .that did not have its 
*ast chance for immortal life. They looked like you, 
they believed like you; they abused the last chance, 
and that means no more chance forever — a prisoner 
without hope! While the gospel touches others, and 
moves others, and saves others, you sit as motionless 
and powerless as the pew in which you rest. Have 
pity on these old gray-headed sinners who have stood on 
the beach till the tide runs out to sea that would float 
them out on the ocean of God's love! If this tide re- 
cedes it may leave you high and dry forever. Go out 
with the tide, and be saved forever! If I knew a man 



44 Sermons and Sayings. 



in this tent by name, and I met him on the street to- 
morrow, and knew him to be a prisoner without hope, 
I would draw back my hand and say, "I would as 
soon shake hands with a corpse as with you! " 

But there are prisoners with hope. The first class 
of these happy creatures saved by the power and grace 
of Almighty God that we mention are the men and 
women of earth — the faithful men and women — who 
have taken up their cross to follow Christ. There 
are thousands of them in this city who love God and 
keep his commandments. They are prisoners of hope, 
now hemmed in by the environments of earth, but 
soon to be God's freemen in heaven, walking the golden 
streets. I shall live here a prisoner of hope, but 
at last shall overleap the circle of friends above my 
dying-couch, and my spirit shall be free and mix with 
the freemen of heaven forever! As long as the star 
of hope shines over my pathway I am ready for every 
good work. I love mercy, do justly, and am ready 
to do any thing God or his Church wants me to do 
so long as the star of hope shines over my pathway. 
I have thought of heaven, and talked of heaven, and 
laid down at night and dreamed of heaven. When 
shall I behold thy heaven-built walls, O Jerusalem? 
when shall I walk within those walls? I shall never 
dodge a duty or shirk a responsibility. When I 
have made my way to God I shall get a grand old 
heaven, just such as an Infinite God would make for 
an immortal spirit. "Let cares, like a wild deluge, 
come;" I shall be safe in the haven of rest. There 
is not a duty that God puts on me that is not a de- 
light to me, for they are the means by which I shall 
rfcacsh heaven at last. That man out there who is not a 



Sebmons and Sayings. 45 



member of any Church is a prisoner, but not without 
hope. His wife does not know how much he is think- 
ing; she does not know that he has been on his 
knees this day, saying: "God, be merciful to me, a 
sinner! " When a poor sinner falls on his knees, and 
says, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner," there is al- 
ways some angel near by to gather up the prayer and 
carry the news, "Behold, heprayeth!" The closest I 
ever get to God is when I stand by while souls are 
being born unto God. I can almost see the flashes 
and scintillations of the Divine Spirit in the eye of 
the converted soul. I say I am then closer to God than 
I ever was in all my life. Thank God, there is a 
chance for that fellow who is going to take that chance i 
"When Garfield — the noble Garfield — was wounded by 
the assassin's bullet, and the doctors were probing to 
find the ball, he said : " Doctor, is there any chance 
for my life? " The reply was tnat there was a chance 
Then said Garfield: "I will take that chance." And 
he did, and grappled with the monster death for 
ninety days as scarcely any man ever did. I want to 
tell you, sinner, there is a chance for you. Will you 
take that chance until God says, " It is enough, come 
up higher?" My God, do all things to me, but blot 
not out my chance for heaven! 

There is another class of prisoners of hope: the 
man who says, " God knows my heart, I wish I were a 
better man; " the boy who says, " I wish I were a better 
boy;" the girl who says, " I wish I were a better girl; " 
the one who says, "I wish I were a Christian." In the 
wickedest day of my life I never forgot my precious 
mother. As long as the soul hungers and thirsts for 
a better life there is as much chance for you as for me 



46 Sermons and Sayings. 



My heart runs out in sympathy for some men undo* 
this tent to-night. Poor fellows! I recollect I had 
made my wife a thousand promises, my Saviour a 
thousand promises, my friends anxious for me a hun- 
dred promises; yet, in spite of plighted vows and hon- 
est promises, I went deeper and deeper. " Wife, for- 
give me; I will never drink any more! " I came home 
worse intoxicated than ever before. I meant it — "I 
won't drink any more to-day; " but with thirst and ap- 
petite impelling me forward, I was but a lamb in the 
power of a lion. There is hope at the cross for the 
weakest man in the world. I sometimes think that in 
spite of mother's prayers and father's advice, God al- 
lowed me to go right into the gates of hell, and puts 
me forward now to go down to the depths to pull my 
fellow-men back. 

See that mother: let all the town forsake her boy, 
and let father drive him from her presence, but pre- 
cious mother hangs to her prodigal boy, and carries 
him to the grave, and visits his last resting-place. It 
was just a little of the nature of God poured into the 
mother's heart; that is all. See that drunken man; 
the white people kick him on the sidewalk; the col- 
ored people spurn him as they meet him; his wife 
saw his staggering step, and took him by the hand 
and carried him up into the house, and laid him on 
the bed, and took cold water and bathed his face. 
Where did the wife get such love for that man? It 
was a little of the nature of God poured into the 
heart of that woman. Will you stop to-night, and 
say, "Take my hand — I am ruined -without thy graje 
and help ? " There is a chance for you. O sir, I shall 
shout occasionally as long as I see there is a eh an cm 



bERMONS AND SAYINGS. 4? 



for me to get to tlie good world ! I am happy, because 
my name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. 

What would the plaudits of the world be to me if I 
am to die and go down to hell forever? I do not 
preach a sermon that I do not remember I have a 
bouI to be saved or lost. God help me to be a good 
man! If it is to leave wife and loved ones, it is all 
right; if it is to deny myself every pleasure of life, 
it is all right. Thank God, in that world up yonder 
I shall have rivers of pleasure and flagons of joy for 
every tear I have shed on earth below! Even to-day 
do I declare I will render double unto thee. " Well," 
one says, " I would get religion, but I would have to go 
mourning, and never enjoy life any more." I can tell 
the truth and say that I have seen more real happi- 
ness here in this town than I saw in twenty-five years 
of life as a sinner. You can't trade evenly with God. 

A minister once told me that in one of his revival 
services there was a young man who came up repeat- 
edly, but seemed to be hesitating. He detained him 
after service to talk with him. " You seem to wan ' 
religion; what is your difficulty? Why is it you hav 
not given yourself to God?" "I don't know, only I 
am clerking in a grocery house, and in one wing of 
the house they keep liquor. Every time I get on my 
knees that whisky is in the way." "Give up the 
place." "I have thought of that. If I give up my 
employment, my mother and sisters will starve." " Go 
along; quit that job, and do your duty. Trust to God, 
and go along." Next morning the young man went 
to his employers, and told them: "You have always 
been kind to me; but I have tried to get religion as 
your clerk, and T can't do it," Said they: "We hat" 



48 SERMONti AND SAYINGS. 



to give you up; you have been a good boy. We can't 
give up liquor; it is the most lucrative part of our 
business." " I will take an affidavit that I do n't want 
to go to heaven." That same spirit makes men sell 
whisky. Avarice has cursed its thousands and damned 
its millions. The boy was converted that night. 
After breakfast a note came from his old employers, 
asking him to come back. " Come into the other room 
with me," said the liquor-dealer; and behold, the last 
barrel had been rolled out, and the floor swept! " We 
want you to go to work; we will give you a hundred 
dollars a month instead of the fifty we have been pay- 
ing you." You say you don't know whether that is 
true or not. I will tell something better and broader 
than that. Preachers used to tell me that if a young 
man would forsake houses and lands, friends, and 
mother and father, to be the Lord's disciple, he 
would give them a hundred-fold. More than twelve 
years ago I pushed all earth aside, and joined the 
North Georgia Conference. I left my step-mother to 
follow Christ, and he has given me a hundred moth- 
ers just as good and kind; I left a little home in 
Cartersville, Georgia, and I have found a hundred 
homes; I left a few friends in Cartersville; bidding 
them good -by, I said: "I am going to serve ths 
Master." He has multiplied my friends a hundred- 
fold, a thousand-fold here, and a thousand-fold — yea, 
a million-fold — in the life to come. I am more and 
more pleased with his service, and more and more 
pleased with his companionship and with my lot, 
and more and more hopeful for eternity. I would 
not go back twelve years and take my chances, 

Were this world a golden ball, 
And gems were all the stars of night. 



Sermons and Sayings. 49 



Now, my friends, in the name of Him who would 
not allow sin to stand in judgment, I have done my 
best to save you from your sins. Do not be a pris- 
ouei without hope, but a prisoner with hope. 



SAYINGS. 

The devil is too much of a gentleman to stay where 
he is not welcome. Why does he stay in your heart? 

Nothing is more lovely than a gentle, patient wom- 
an. God pity the man that has a forky-tongued wife! 

There are two things I hate — a dancing-master and 
a little time-serving preacher. They are both the 
laughing-stock of the devil. 

You don't believe what you don't see. Did you 
ever see your backbone? Some men believe they 
have a backbone, when it is nothing but a cotton string 
run up their backs. 

The Lord does n't shoot cannon-balls at snow-birds; 
and if he were to let loose such a bolt of lightning at 
you as he did at Saul of Tarsus, he would not leave 
a greasy spot of you. 
4 




SERMON IV. 
David's Religious Experience. 

t% I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and ray suppH 
cations," etc. (Psalm cxvi.) 

E propose to read perhaps all of the one hun- 
dred and sixteenth Psalm. This is what we 
might denominate David's religious experi- 
ence. I imagine if he had been in a Baptist experi- 
ence-meeting, or a Methodist love-feast, he would talk 
just about as he has written in this Psalm. I have 
always been interested in the experience of any good 
man or woman, and especially since I professed to have 
a religious experience myself. I have always been 
interested when a good man or woman gets up to talk. 
They get my ear; they get my heart and soul. If 
there is any one prayer that I have been praying from 
the depths of my heart it is this: "Lord, if I am not 
what I ought to be, show it to me; I do n't want to go 
to the judgment and into eternity with a blindfold on 
my eyes; I want to see things as they are. Let me 
see not only what I am, but let me see what thou 
wouldst have me to be. Lord, save my soul at any 
cost! If it be necessary for me to be sick, and lie 
down on a bed of trouble and rack of pain, let it be so. 
Save my soul at any cost!" Have you ever prayed 
that way? Lord, Lord, I have counted the cost — or, 
in other words, I have not got time to count the cost; 
but I am going to heaven, cost what it will. 

TVe read, this Psalm — it is an expression of a tried 
Christian man: "I love the Lord, because he hath 



Sermons and Sayings. 51 



heard my voice and my supplications. Because he 
hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call 
upon him as long as I live." David speaks, and he 
calls upon men, and tells them the reason of his love 
to God. He announces first, "I do love God." This 
is a demonstration of the fact that he is acquainted 
with God. If any man does n't love God, it is because 
he does n't know him. To know him is to love him, and 
to love him is to serve him. And if any man on the 
face of the earth does not love God, it is because he 
has not seen him in all his characteristics. If any 
man does not love God at all, it is because he has not 
seen him at all. " Blessed are the pure in heart, f 01 
they shall see God." I have evidence of God's pres- 
ence all around me; but when I want to see God I will 
go and talk with him, and put my arm in his, and 
walk step by step at his side. Just take the path of 
Christian duty, and all along the line you will find 
God at every step. 

Now, I love God. Why? Because he has shown 
himself to be so lovable; "because he hath heard 
my voice and my supplications;" because I went to 
him and prayed for things and he gave me the things 
I prayed for. How can I help loving him when he 
has done so lovingly toward me? David says: "He 
hath heard my voice and my supplications. ... I 
will call upon him as long as I live." He meant to 
say: "It is a thing settled in my mind; I will be a 
praying man as long as I live." I may quit ten thou- 
sand things, but I will never quit praying. If I live 
ten, twenty, forty, or nine hundred and sixty-nine 
years, I will be a praying man still. I have settled 
the question once and forever. As long as I live 1 



52 Sermons and Sayings. 



will call upon him. Why? Because he has heard my 
voice in supplication. Ah me! what a triumph of 
faith to know that God heard me when I called upon 
him. There is not a person here that is not con- 
scious of the fact that the Lord has answered one 
prayer for him. There is not a person in this tent 
that has not prayed; there is not a person here but 
has had answers to his prayers. Now, what do you 
say? He has heard me, and given me the things 
for which I prayed, and I am encouraged to go to 
him as long as I live. That is it. It is worth some- 
thing to a man to know that there is a God, and that 
God loves him, and that God will hear his prayer, 
and that God will answer his prayer. I have been in 
tight pinches, and I would have surrendered if it had 
not been for that. I have heard men say, when any 
thing fortunate happened to a person which you had 
been praying for: "Your prayers had nothing to do 
with that; it happened in the natural order of things." 
'Yes," I say; "but the same thing did not happen 
(o that other fellow down there who did not pray for 
it." Like a man down in Georgia: he introduced 
himself to me on a train. In the course of the con- 
versation, turning round, he said: " There is all I have 
teft from the cyclone." Says I, "What?" And he 
said, " My wife and children." " What do you mean? " 
f asked. And he said: "I was over in the field when 
that cyclone passed over Jones county. I heard the 
noise and the commotion; and about a half mile from 
my home I saw a cyclone, and its course was over 
toward my house. My first impulse was to run home; 
but I saw I could not get there in time to do any 
thing for my wife and children, so I fell down on my 



Sermons and Sayings. 53 



knees and said: ' God Almighty, save my wife and chil- 
dren! let all else go, but save them!'" He said he 
was thus praying while the thing went jumping and 
bounding and twisting and roaring along; and he said 
he saw it coming right over the hill toward his house. 
As soon as it had passed he said he got up on the hill 
and looked, and there was not a vestige of his house 
or kitchen or stable on the place; and he said: "O 
Lord, are my wife and children destroyed?" And 
he ran down the path, and here came his wife and 
children and a little black child; and when they met 
each other they had a real old Georgia camp-meeting. 
"•You see, she had been out hunting me. I asked her, 
'How did you get out of this scrape?' She said, 'I 
and my little child were in the kitchen — a log-kitchen 
■ — and I was cooking, when I heard that tremendous 
roar. All at once I and my little child ran right up 
in the corner of the kitchen, and the first sweep of the 
cyclone took away every particle of the kitchen ex- 
cept six or seven logs about that corner; and it 
twisted a big oak-tree off at its roots, and laid its 
heavy body on the corner, and tied the logs down, 
and when the last shock had passed, I and my little 
child were sitting there unhurt.' You can't tell mo 
God doesn't answer prayer," said he. Some people 
say that God does n't get up these cyclones. I do n't 
care who gets up a thing, if you will just give Goci 
the reins, and let him direct it. The man who owned 
the next house was half a mile off, and when he gel 
home the last vestige of his house was swept away. 
He took the course of the cyclone, and found one 
child, and then a little farther on he found his wife, 
without a vestige of clothing, literally bruised and 



61 Seemons and Sayings. 



mangled to death. Passing on, he found another 
child dead, caught in the limb of a tree; then the 
fourth child was found; and then the fifth, which was 
the baby; then he came across his brother-in-law dead. 
"My God!" said he, "won't I find a single one of my 
family alive?" The next day he buried his wife and 
five children all together. It is customary in Geor- 
gia to build storm-pits to protect the people from the 
fury of the storm. I would not give one honest 
prayer for all the storm-pits in Georgia. 1 heard of 
a lady who, when she thought a storm was coming, 
started down to the storm-pit, and fell and broke her 
neck, and they never had any storm. That was the 
joke on her. 

I want to tell you good women I read your requests 
this morning. You are on the right line. I want you 
to pray for your husbands. Let us beseech God until 
he comes down in answer to our prayers. The devil need 
not come whining around me, saying my prayer had 
nothing to do with that. I say it did. God heard and 
answered my prayer. 

David's expression from a Christian heart was this' 
"As long as I live I will pray." "Because he hath 
inclined his ear unto me, therefore I will call upon 
him as long as I live." "I love the Lord, because he 
hath heard my voice and my supplications." Now he 
takes up his religious experience in its inception, and 
here is what he has to say: "The sorrows of death 
compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon 
me; I found trouble and sorrow." There is wheiv 
every man's religious experience really begins — down 
in the consciousness, when he cries out, "I am lost! I 
am lost!" A man's religion never goes any deeper 



Sermons anl> Sayings. 55 



than his convictions. I don't underrate a Christian 
experience because some fellow did not get fired like 
St. Paul. Many a fellow wants to be struck like St. 
Paul; he wants to be struck down in the road. The 
only trouble with St. Paul was touching the divinity 
of Christ. It took the biggest cannon of heaven 
turned loose on him to convince him. There is many 
a fellow waiting around here for God to shoot one of 
those cannon-balls at him. God never wastes can- 
non-balls on snow-birds. If God were to shoot a ball 
like that at you he would not leave a greasy spot. 
You little dunce! I don't underrate a man's relig- 
ious experience because he can't give place or date. 
Some of the best men I ever saw could not give the 
place and time when this miracle of grace occurred; 
but they could say, "I love God." I don't underrate 
a man's religious experience because he did not have 
it like somebody else. But I say this much: I want 
a fellow to feel awful mean; this is a common feeling, 
and it is a very natural one. Sister, if you never felt 
mean, then you never felt natural; and brother, if you 
never felt mean, then you never came within half a 
mile of feeling natural. Like that fellow up at Leba- 
non: he said he felt mean, and I told him he felt nat- 
ural for one time in his life. The fact is, a man gets 
religion a good deal like he gets the measles. Eelig- 
ion is catching. A fellow goes and gets tangled up 
with the measles, and in about ten days he says: 
"Wife, you can send for the doctor; I feel bad; I 
ache from head to foot." She sends to a doctor, and 
he comes and examines the case. He asks: "Have 
you been exposed to measles? that is what you have 
got." He gives him a cup of good hot tea, and says 



56 Sermons and Sayings. 



"You imp on drinking that until you get it broke 
out on you, and then you will be all right." Now, 
some of you have got tangled up in this meeting, and 
you never felt so mean in your life. You have caught 
religion. I will just give you two or three cups of 
gospel tea, and break it out on you; then keep it broke 
out, and you are elected. If you will walk right up 
and take two or three cups of this sort of tea — "Ask, 
and ye shall receive ; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and 
it shall be opened unto you " — take two or three cups 
of this warm tea, then you shall be saved. Break it 
out, and keep it broke out. Religion is like measles: 
if it goes in on you, it will kill you. The trouble with 
a great many Christians in this city is, religion has 
gone in on them. Keep it broke out on hands, feet, 
and tongue. Every fellow in this tent who feels mean 
and goes into the atmosphere of that bar-room is 
gone. You had better wrap up and keep warm for a 
few days. 

David says: "The pains of hell gat hold upon me; 
I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the 
name of the Lord." This sort of pain is different 
from any other sort of pain. David says: "The sor- 
rows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell 
gat hold upon me; I found trouble and sorrow. Then 
called I upon the name of the Lord: O Lord, I be- 
seech thee, deliver my soul!" I like to hear a fellow 
calling on God that way. As soon as David got con- 
viction on him, what did he do? He commenced call- 
ing on God. 

Paul says: " The law was our school-master to bring 
us to Christ." In those old days the children did not 
go unattended to school, but the school -master wen» 



Sermons and Sayings, 57 



around to gather them up The law of God is the 
lash that whips me. The tendency of the law is to 
keep behind a fellow, and tan him up. The law of 
God will show me how mean I am, but it is only the 
grace of God that can save me from that meanness. 
I never yet saw a fellow who felt very mean and did 
not afterward feel good. If you can get a fellow 
to say, "I am awfully diseased, and I want you to 
bring the doctor," you can do almost any thing with 
him. And then the doctor comes in and pours out 
some medicine. He does not know what it is, but he 
swallows it right down. I like to see a fellow like 
that — so low down that he does n't ask any questions. 
I wish all Christian men and women here would go 
home and begin to read Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Prog- 
ress," and find out what is lacking with them. 

" Then called I upon the name of the Lord; O Lord, 
I beseech thee, deliver my soul!" It is not my body; 
it is not my worldly interest; it is my soul. The next 
expression of David's is: "Gracious is the Lord, and 
righteous; yea, our God is merciful." I have heard 
this incident : A celebrated revivalist was standing 
preaching, and there was a man standing on the out- 
skirts of the crowd, and at the close of the sermon he 
walked up and gave the preacher his hand, and said; 
" I am what they call an infidel, but I have been list- 
ening to your voice in preaching the truth, and I want 
to know what to do." The preacher said, "Kneel 
down;" and he knelt down. "Now say, God be 
merciful to me, a sinner;" and the fellow repeated it. 
The preacher then asked, "Do you mean what yon 
said?" and the fellow answered, "I don't know 
whether I do or not. ' "Then say it again;" and the 



68 Sekmons and Sayings. 



fellow repeated, "God be merciful to me, a sinner.* 
Then the preacher asked, " Do you mean it? " and the 
fellow said, "I meant it more that time than I did be- 
fore." And the third time he repeated after the 
preacher: "God be merciful to me, a sinner." "Do 
you mean it? " and he answered: "Yes, sir; and God 
is merciful to me, a sinner." There is many a man in 
this town who has got religion and does n't know it. 
How do you know when you have religion? One man 
said, "When I got religion the trees and birds looked 
brighter." God have mercy on you, waiting on the 
trees and birds! I believe I would not do that, if I 
were you. Just as certain as the sun shines on the 
world, there is religious experience. But, thank God, 
it is not confined to trees and birds; it is confined to 
the one question, "Am I loyal to God? " If you seek 
a blessing, it is like a preacher praying for more 
grace, and a deeper work of grace. I do n't want any 
more grace. I want to use the grace I have. It is 
the using that I want. Praying for a deeper work of 
grace ! Ask them what they want, and they could not 
tell you to save their lives. If one of my children 
was always saying, " Papa, bless me, bless me," I would 
say: "Now you get up here, like a sensible child 
What do you want?" "Don't know, sir." "I will 
box you if you don't talk sense!" 

"Deliver my soul." We want a deliverance from 
the guilt and love of sin. "Gracious is the Lord, and 
righteous; yea, our God is merciful." As soon as a 
man quits doing wrong toward God he begins to see 
how good God is. I had a friend in Cartersville who 
was mad with another member of the Church; and I 
said: "If you will go and pay that man all that you 



Sekmons and Sayings. 69 



owe him, I venture to say that it will be all right." 
I got the man to pay his debts, and there are no better 
friends in the town than those two men. If yon will 
pay your debts to God, none will be better friends. 

Now David says: "The Lord preserveth the simple." 
He begins to philosophize: "The Lord preserveth 
the simple; I was brought low, and he helped me." 
The Lord loves these simple fellows. Some of you 
big-headed fellows down there have found out that 
there is no hell; and some of you have gone far 
enough to find out there is no God. If there is a 
being in this world that God will take care of, it is 
one of these little fellows who doesn't know much. 
It is one of these little fellows who gets down on his 
knees. When he gets out of bed he falls down on 
his knees, and says: "O Lord, come and walk with 
me; I will get into trouble if you don't come with 
me." And after his breakfast he falls on his knees, 
and asks the Lord to go down town with him, because 
he is weak and afraid to go by himself. This is the 
sort of fellow the Lord likes to go with. There is 
something in prayer when a man like Isaac Newton 
comes down from his observatory and falls upon his 
knees and prays to God, and says: "I get closer to 
God on my knees than I ever did with that telescope 
up there." I like such a fellow as that. When a man 
like Newton was a little child of God, I do n't know 
what some of these little simple fellows ought to be. 

I heard of a fellow once: his father gave him a 
black boy to wait on him and drive him around. They 
went to a camp-meeting, and at the first sermon 
preached the young man was convicted, and the ne- 
ejro was convicted. The young man went into the 



60 Sebmons and Sayings. 



altar and prayed, but the negro boy went into the 
woods and got down on his knees before God, and was 
converted. The young man went home and was pray- 
ing about three weeks. And one day this negro boy 
was going along by his master's door, and he called 
him in and said: "Look here, we wore both convicted 
under the same sermon, and you were converted in 
an hour, and here I have been praying three weeks; 
tell me how this is. You were the worst negro on 
this place, while I have been good all my life. How 
is it that God will bless a mean negro like you in an 
hour, and won't bless a good fellow like me?" "I 
will explain to you," said the negro. "As soon as I 
Mas convicted, I went out in the woods and knelt down, 
and the Lord let the light of his Spirit shine on me, 
and I found I was clothed in the dirty rags of sin; 
but I shucked them off, and now I am clothed in the 
garments of righteousness. Now, mars, you have got 
just one spot on your clothes, and you have be^n try- 
ing to clean it off; but just shuck them all off." And 
the young man went off, and fell down on his knees 
and prayed to God: "God be merciful to me, a sin- 
ner." And the negro said: "Look here, you have got 
to shuck off those dirty garments of sin, or the Lord 
won't save you." lie was brought low, and saw his 
hope was in God, and not in philosophy or society. 

In the first place, David says: '"Gracious is the 
Lord, and righteous;" and in the next place: "I will 
walk before the Lord in the land of the living." This 
i^ what I want you to say. David meant to say: "1 
will be a man for God and right." 

These little fellows who can't walk nor talk- hnve 
von not seen them? These little fellows that I was go- 



Sermons and Sayings. 61 



ing to ship off with a two-cent postage stamp! It 
would take two hundred tons of soothing-sirup to run 
them. Mrs. Winslow's Soothing-sirup is in demand. 
These little fellows twenty-four, twenty-eight, and 
thirty-two years old, all there in the cradle, and they 
act and talk and eat just like they were a day old. 
There they are. How many like them have you got, 
Brother Barbee? They are the sort you give sooth- 
ing-sirup to. They outcry creation if you do n't give 
them something to soothe them. Wouldn't you be 
sorry for a woman who had ten children just that 
age and just like these little fellows when they were 
born? There is your Church: it takes it all the time 
to nurse the babies, and it has no time to get new 
converts. 

David said: "I will walk before the Lord in the 
land of the living." If I was a man, I would be a 
man; if I was a Christian, I would be a Christian; if 
I was a Methodist, I would be one from head to foot 
— all over; if I was a Baptist, I would be one through 
and through; whatever I am, I will be that with all 
my heart. O my ! these little wishy-washy fellows ! al- 
ways standing round and waiting and shivering and 
shuddering. I do n't like that. I believe we ought to 
run and leap into the river — lined all over with hu- 
man wretchedness — and bring some of those wretched 
beings ashore. Let us be men for God. There are 
five hundred men in this town ; if I could get them to 
take a stand for God, we could keep this city straight 
forever. There is many a fellow nosing around try- 
ing to get ten fellows to join the Church with him; 
he is afraid to do it by himself. Let us be out on 
this question, and let every fellow stand in the sun- 



62 Sermons and Sayings 



shine by himself, like a true man, and fight it out on 
this line. 

I want to say to you Christian people here: You pat 
Judge Allen — a man of stamina— on the back, and 
tell him your influence and money are with him; you 
will back him in putting this fearful curse of gam- 
bl ing out of the city. Stand by your mayor and your 
police force in this business, and drive this curse out 
of your city. If we will sit down and study it a mo- 
ment, we will find that as many as ten bar-rooms rest 
right on one gambling-hell; and God knows how many 
houses of ill-fame rest right on these gambling-hells! 
When you knock the gambling prop out, it will all go 
down. We all expect a good deal of this Legislature. 
I want them to be tangled up with these meetings. 
Of course they are pious men; but I want them to be 
more pious. Whenever the Governor and the Legis- 
lature of a State, and the judges and the mayor of a 
city, get in a line, we have a right to expect something 
to happen. What we want in this town from now till 
we die is a living, walking, earnest Christianity. I 
will be somebody. And, brethren, as long as you give 
your members soothing-sirup, they never will come to 
God. It deadens their faculties as well as their con- 
sciences. You must give these fellows who rent theii 
stoi es for bar-rooms something to stir them ; they are 
asleep. "I will walk before the Lord in the land of 
the living." I will be somebody for God. For all 
his abounding mercy and goodness, what shall I do? 
David says: "I will take the cup of salvation" — 
righteousness and faith — and I will drink it down; 
aud then I will "call upon the name of the Lord." O 
if 1 could get every man in this tent here to obey the 



Sermons and Sayings. 63 



voice of God, and say, " I will never shirk and hide 
any more!" O what a grand Church and city we 
would have! The Lord bless us, and sanctify these 
eternal truths for our eternal good! 



SAYINGS. 

Perhaps if you do n't talk about your religion, it 
is because you have n't any religion to talk about. 

I would not take the record of some people who 
hear me to-day, and go to the judgment-bar of God 
with it, for all the money in the universe; and good- 
ness knows I am poor enough! 

Thank God for a bee-line to the good world! Do 
you know what a bee-line is? The bee, after going 
from flower to flower with its velvet tread, extracting 
the honey, soars above the tree-tops, and makes a bee- 
line for its hive. Happy, happy — thrice happy — will 
we be when, after extracting all the sweets out of this 
life, we can soar above the world, and make a bee- 
line for the glory land! 

The fact is, a man gets religion a good deal like he 
gets the measles. A fellow gets tangled up with the 
measles, and in about ten days the doctor comes, gives 
him a cup of good hot tea, and tells him to keep on 
taking that until it breaks out; and then keep it broke 
out, and he will be all right. So some of you have 
got tangled up in this meeting until you feel as bad 
as a fellow with the measles before they break out. A 
few hot cups of gospel tea will make religion break 
out all over you. Then keep it out, and you are all 
right. But, like the measles, if it goes in on you, if 
will kill you, sure. 




SERMON V. 
What Must I Do To Be Saved? 

"What must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the 
Lord Jesu , Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." (Acts 
xvi. 30, 31.) 

HAT must I do to be saved? Infinitely the 
most important question ever propounded is, 
" What must I do to be saved ? " " Believe on 
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and 
thy house." We have read these words from two 
verses, the thirtieth and thirty-first, of the sixteenth 
chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. 

As a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I have 
no right to advise a man to do any thing that he might 
not do and die saved. I might advise a man to keep 
good company, and I know that is good advice. No 
man will ever know the value of good company, or the 
fearful curse of bad company, in this world. Every 
one ought to keep good company. A man can afford 
any thing rather than bad associates. There is not 
an angel in heaven that is proof against bad company. 
What would you think of me if I were to say I would 
rather associate with a hog than to associate with a 
man who drinks whisky? A man might associate with 
a hog until he became hoggish, but he would never 
become a drunkard. And just as morals are above 
manners, so a hog beats a dram-drinker as an associate, 
I would rather associate with a dog than with a pro- 
fane swearer. I never heard a dog swear — I mean a 
four-legged one. A man can associate with a dog 
(64) 



(Sermons and (Sayings. 65 



until he becomes doggish, but he will never Jbecome a 
swearer. You talk with me and think about it for ten 
minutes, and though you may hear many things that 
Bound mighty strange, yet I have weighed these things 
in the light-of eternity, and I am right. And I say to 
advise a man to keep good company is good advice, 
for all men ought to shun bad company if they would 
be good. 

I can see how a man could go from the ordinance of 
baptism, administered in the name of the Holy Trin- 
ity, down to hell at last; and I can see how a man 
could go from the communion-board to hell. I might 
advise a man to pray in his family night and morning 
— and I never will believe any thing else but that a 
man who has not enough religion to pray in his fam- 
ily has not enough to save his soul — and yet I see 
how a man can pray in his family night and morning 
until he dies, and die unsaved. I might advise a man 
to join the Church — and every one in this world ought 
to be in the Church. The Church will never be what 
it ought to be until every man in the world is in it. 
The way it is now, it is like a father saying to his four 
boys: "Boys, I am going off now to be gone awhile, 
and I want you to run the farm. Put this field in cot- 
ton, this in corn, and that in oats." The old man goes 
off and leaves the four boys. Bill and John say: 
" We will not go in, for if we once start we shall have 
to keep at it." The other two boys plow and plant 
the crops, and about the first of May the grass is 
catching them. Bill and John come and sit on the fence 
and say, "Just look at the grass taking the field ! " 
And the others say. "If you will get down off of 
the fence we will get you a hoe. We should not have 



66 Sermons and Sayings. 



been in the grass if it had not been for you. If yon 
had staid with us the grass would not have been 
there." An old sinner sits out there in the shade with 
the grass growing up around him, and I say, "It would 
never have gotten so bad if you had put your licks at 
it in time." 

Every man in the world ought to be in the Church 
of God. When I see you men out of the Church I 
want to save you. To you men who drink, swear, and 
break the Sabbath let me say: I have a right to- 
day to get as drunk as any man in this city. I 
have just as much right to steal something to-day 
as anybody. Who gave you the right to get drunk 
and swear? Who gave you the right to tell lies? 
Who gave you the right to profane God's name? I 
have just as much right as you have to do it. I won't 
do it; you ought not to do it, and you know it. I say 
again, I might advise a man to join the Church, and 
that is good advice. I wish you would all join, and 
make better members than we have ever made. Yet 
I can see how a man can go from the heights of pro- 
fession down to the depths of damnation. That is 
possible. I might advise a man to go to work for 
Christ, and that is good advice; all of us ought to 
work for him. On the last day we will say: "Lord, 
Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy 
name cast out devils, and in thy name done many 
wonderful works?" And he will say to us: "Depart, 
ye cursed; I never knew you! " 

There is but one sufficiency, and that is faith in tho 
Lord Jesus Christ. Let us talk about salvation a lit- 
tle; let us get away from what we call the sentimen- 
tality of religion. Religion is not sentiment: neither 



Sermons and Sayings. 67 



is it crying and shouting — not any more than my coat 
is Sam Jones. Thank God, I have a coat though; and 
thank God for sentiment and shouting! 

Salvation. What is salvation? Every theological 
book I look into tells me that salvation is deliverance 
— first, from the guilt of sin; second, from the love of 
sin; and third, from the dominion of sin. That is 
what the books say salvation means; but if I were to 
answer out of the Word of God, and out of Christian 
experience, I would say that it is the loving of every 
thing that God loves, and the hating of every thing 
that God hates. If you will tell me what you love, I 
will tell you who you are. A man's likes and dislikes 
determine his character. The difference between the 
Lord Jesus Christ and the enemy of souls is in their 
likes and dislikes. A man's affinities determine who 
he is and what he is. I am no metaphysician, but I 
can see a hole through a ladder if there is any light 
on the other side. I will tell you there was very lit- 
tle metaphysics when the jailer stood up there trem- 
bling and asked, " What must I do to be saved? " And 
there is not much metaphysics in the answer: "Be- 
lieve on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
saved." There is not much metaphysics about that. 
There are many things that religion cannot do for a 
fellow. God never does any thing for a man that he 
can do for himself. The Lord is too busy for that — 
to be doing things for men that they can do them- 
selves. God never quit drinking for any man; that 
is the man's own lookout. God never quit lying for 
anybody; that is your own job. God never quit steal- 
ing for anybody; that is your own business to look 
after. And I say to you to-day, God never prayed in 



Sermons and Sayings. 



any man's family for him; God never took up any- 
body's cross for him. There is a great deal of this 
work of salvation on your own shoulders, and my 
great desire is to take hold of men and pull them up 
where God can save them. I say it is a moral impos- 
sibility for God to take a man to heaven when every 
step of that man's life is downward and hellward. 

Now, "What must I do to be saved?" This is a 
very personal matter, and St. Paul, answering that 
trembling jailer, said to him: "Believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." That meant 
then more than it. does now. That meant that this 
trembling jailer had to give up his position, and give 
up every thing, and be an outcast. And I tell you, 
brethren, that it took grit to stand up, when Paul 
talked to them, and say, "I believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ." It meant something in those times to be a 
Christian. Now it means respectability. To be a 
Christian now does not mean what it did eighteen 
hundred years ago — in the sense that Paul said to 
that disciple, "Give up all if you want to be the 
Lord's." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." I 
would put the stress on the "on." St. Paul said "be- 
lieve," but I would say "believe on." I believe Ben- 
edict Arnold — what he says about the Kevolution; bui 
I don't believe on Benedict Arnold — I only believe 
what he said. I believe George Washington when he 
makes a statement; but I not only believe George 
Washington's statement, but I believe on him, in the 
sense that I. love him, revere him, and follow him. I 
di 1 believe for twenty-five years, but I just laughed 
and cursed and drank, and still had as much faith as 
the devil. How can I help believing on the Lord 



Sermons and Sayings. 



Jesus Christ? I believe on him now and for ever- 
more, never doubting. Yet I was a sinner for twenty- 
five years; and when I say now that I believe on him, 
I mean that I am imitating him now, and revering 
him now. And when Matthew got up from the re- 
ceipt of custom he took the thing in, and he became 
a grand disciple. " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." 
You can run Mormonism without Joseph Smith, but 
you cannot run Christianity without Christ. 

Christ is all the world to me, 
And his glory I shall see ; 
And before I 'd leave my Saviour 
I'd lay me down and die. 

There is not a word in the book about getting re- 
ligion; not a word. Do you read in the book where 
Matthew got religion? and where Paul got religion? 
Getting religion may mean a good deal, and it may 
not mean any thing. Whenever a man stands up and 
tells me he has got religion, I have just one question 
to ask: "Do you mean you have got the Lord Jesus 
Christ in your heart?" If Jesus is yours, give him 
your heart. There is a good deal of foolishness mixed 
up with religion. Christ said: "Behold, I stand at 
the door and knock." When I was preaching at Mem- 
phis, one Monday morning I received a letter in a fine 
business hand from a gentleman, which started out by 
saying, "Mr. Jones, I am from Kansas City, Mo./' 
and then said: "I came into this city Saturday even- 
ing, and as soon as I stepped off on the soil of this city 
some strange something took possession of me. I 
went to my hotel and retired to my room, and all the 
time I felt that something was lacking. I went to bed 
and could not sleep— some strange something pos- 



f'J Sermons and Sayings. 



sessed me. Next morning I got up with the same feel- 
ing, and walked out across the street to church and 
listened to the sermon, and afterward returned to my 
hotel without the desire to eat, and no relief. That 
night I was out, again heard the gospel, and when I 
got home from church last night I said, 'I must know 
what this is;' and I knelt down and commenced to 
pray, and found out it was the Lord Jesus Christ 
knocking at the door of my heart. And," he said, 
" the old rusty hinges had been closed so long I could 
not open the door, and I want the Lord to pour his 
oil on these hinges that I may open the door and take 
in the Lord Jesus Christ." That night after preach- 
ing I said, "I got a letter from a gentleman with a 
heart with rusty hinges;" and he jumped up and said, 
" I will write to Mary this night, and she shall have a 
letter from her husband showing that he has got the 
Lord Jesus Christ at last." "Behold, I stand at the 
door and knock." It is the Lord's business to knock 
and mine to open and let him come in. He knocks, we 
open, and he comes in. Two for one. That is the Lord's 
plan all the way through. " Come in, and I will sup 
with you." When I opened the door and saw this 
heavenly guest, I was ashamed. Ashamed of what? 
Ashamed of the home I had to give him. I was 
ashamed of every thing I had to offer him. But he 
made himself at home; he was so good and kind — the 
best guest I ever had. And after he had been my 
guest he said, "I will be the host and you shall be 
the guest, and you shall sup with me." He spread 
before me a heavenly repast. I rejoice that I have 
an unfailing Saviour that is with me all the day long. 
A.nd, brethren, to get the Lord Jesus Christ in youi 



Sermons and Sayings. 71 



hearts you need only go to the same divine head and 
heart who wrote this book. He is in my heart, moving 
every impulse of my nature and directing every 
thought of my life; and hence the apostle said: "Nev- 
ertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.'' 
And, brethren, Christianity is not getting religion, 
but it is getting the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank God, 
it is not faith in a creed. Creed! "What is a creed? 
It is the skin of truth set up and stuffed with sawdust 
and sand. It would make a good thing for a museum. 
If I had a creed I would sell it to a museum. Creed 
shows itself in the wars of the last few hundred years. 
It was over creed that men fought, and not over 
Christ. Orthodoxies are what have ruined this world. 
Lord, Lord, how a man will fight for his doxie, and 
then turn round and see his Saviour insulted and 
never resent that! You must not step on my creed; if 
you do, you are a goner! I will tell you, old man 
Calvin manufactured some things that would stick 
and gag, and men could never get them down. Thank 
God, it is not whosoever believes John Calvin's 
creed, but whosoever believes on the Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

Some time ago a mother said tome: "My daugh- 
ter is too young to know what she is talking about; 
she is ten years old, and does not know a thing in the 
world about the plan of salvation." I said: "You 
stand there and be the head, and let her be the foot; 
and don't you think that nobody is saved except those 
who understand the plan of salvation." Who is it that 
understands the plan of salvation? How can I under- 
stand how God, ihe Maker of the universe, could be 
carried about in Mary's arms? How can I under 



72 Sekmons and Sayings. 



stand liow Jesus Christ had to push a plane at a car* 
penter's bench for a living? How can I understand 
that the everlasting God went down into his grave, 
and on the morning of the third day, with his own in- 
herent power, walked forth from the grave? He has 
either a mighty long head ' or a mighty short creed 
who believes only what he understands. That fellow 
who believes only what he can understand does n't be- 
lieve there is a muley- headed cow in the universe. 
I revere him, but I will not imitate him, for I shall be 
saved. 

A great many people think that a man has to go to 
an altar to be saved. Confidence in a man is not re- 
ligion. That altar business started down in Georgia 
about sixty-nine years ago. Where did the sinner go 
before that time? Have they gone to hell because 
they did not go to the altar? A man who believes 
only in what he can see does n't believe he has got 
a backbone. I am not running on understanding. 
I could not get to my front gate on understanding, 
but I could get from earth to heaven on believing. I 
am running on believing now. I believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ in the sense that I will follow him. 
I love him. If you will open your heart when he 
knocks, he will save you. He that worships God let 
him do it in spirit and in truth. " What must I do 
to be saved?" Open your heart and let the heavenly 
guest come in. A stranger knocks at the door; will 
you admit this guest and say, "Abide forever?" 
Christ always lives where there is room for him. If 
there is room in your heart for Christ, he lives there; 
if there is room in a law-office for Christ, he lives 
there; if there is room in your store for Christ, he 



Sermons and Sayings. 78 



lives there; if there is room on a locomotive-engine, 
he will be there; if there is room in your baggage-car 
he will be there. Everywhere there is room for him : 
he will come into our homes, and into oar stores, and 
into our shops, and on our engines, and in our cars — 
that is, if we will provide room for him. And it is 
Christ, Christ, Christ; and it is not getting religion. 
Now when it comes to the understanding of the thing, 
I don't understand it; but I know that twelve years 
ago there was a knock at my heart, and I know I got 
the doors open. It took me a week. How I prized 
and dug! But my trouble was not getting Christ in, 
but getting the doors open. As soon as the doors 
flew open he came in, and brought salvation with him. 
I have read a great many theological works that were 
as clear as mud, but I did not need much theology to 
understand that. 

Now we stop here just long enough to say that faith 
has its conditions. I am not discussing its essence, 
but its conditions. Sight has its conditions. I put 
my hand up this way before my eyes; I cannot see that 
picture to save my life. Why? I am not complying 
with the conditions of sight. I take my hand down, 
and I see the picture plainly. Why? I comply with 
the conditions of sight. See that apple hanging 01 
that tree. I say I cannot taste it to save my life, and 
a little ten-year-old boy runs and pulls it off and gives 
it to me, and I cannot help tasting it to save my life 
When I comply with the conditions of taste, I can 
not help tasting it. When you comply with the condi 
tion of faith, you cannot help believing. What is it I 
llepentance toward God; that is the main part; that 
is the human side; that is the condition — repentance 



74 Sekmons and Sayings. 



toward God. If I repent, I cannot help believing; and 
there is no power on earth or in heaven that can help 
me believe until I repent. My business is to repent, 
and the believing will look after itself; and then God 
gives salvation because I comply with the conditions. 
That is the way it runs. Some say, " My trouble is 
doubt." If you will take hold of your doubt and pull it 
up by the roots, you will find a seed at the bottom, and 
that seed is sin. I never had any doubts in my life. 
If you will empty your hearts and meet the conditions 
then the doubts will be gone. Last February a year 
ago I was walking up the railroad track with my pas- 
tor, Brother Bobbins, of Cartersville, taking a little 
exercise. As we passed up the road the wind came up 
this side of us, then in our faces, and then at our 
backs. Brother Bobbins said, " We are going to have 
a cyclone about two o'clock." I said, "How do you 
know? Have you gotten out your almanac?" He 
said, "No." I said, "You ought to get out an almanac 
if you can tell when things are coming." We had not 
been home ten minutes before I saw it, like a hundred 
thousand mogul engines, sweeping things into the 
air and wiping out plantations and sections of the 
country . I stood and watched it in its course. If a 
fellow lets the conditions meet in him — that is all 
The conditions of a moral cyclone are about to meet 
in this city, and if you do n't want to be caught in it 
you had better get out of town. There is a moral cy- 
clone sweeping over your souls that will sweep out 
every thought that God disapproves. Now let condi- 
tions meet to-day, and to-morrow the cyclone is inev- 
itable. Beligion is just as much a reality with me aa 
that I have got my hand on this poplar railing. Be- 



Sermons and Sayings. V6 



ligion is just as much a reality with me as that I have 
four fingers on each hand. You might persuade me 
that ten thousand things are not true, but you could 
not persuade me that some divine power has not 
touched my heart and revolutionized me. Like the 
fellow at the camp-meeting who got up and said, " If 
you all don't believe I have got religion, you go home 
and ask my wife; she will tell you." And if there is 
any woman in the world who believes that her hus- 
band has religion, that woman is my wife. Repent- 
ance is the first conscious movement of the soul from 
sin toward God. Many a fellow is praying for rain 
with his tub the wrong side up. God cannot fill a tub 
when it is wrong side up without inverting the law of 
gravity. God is holding up his clouds for you while 
you are holding your tubs the wrong side up. Turn 
them up and push them under the eaves if you want 
them to be filled, for the shower is coming. The hour 
is nearly up, but I will speak a moment on the last 
part of the text. 

"And thy house." Thank God for the privilege 
and assurance that we shall go to heaven! "And thy 
house." Thank God for the privilege and assurance 
that the children can go to heaven! Thank God for 
the privilege and assurance that servants can go to 
heaven ! I want my wife to go, I want my children to 
go, I want my servant-boy to go, I want my cook to 
go. Now, brethren, you may all throw away these op- 
portunities and neglect to get your children to be re- 
ligious if you want to. Every night and morning I 
want every man to have family prayer. There are 
many children reared in what you call Christian homes 
who do not know the way to heaven. Poor little fel- 



76 Sermons and Sayings, 



lows! they never went half a mile the right way in all 
their lives. A boy said to his father, while he was 
dying: "Father, I am dying now, and I am lost for- 
ever! When I am dead bury me on the sidewalk 
clown toward the horse-lot, and as yon pass three 
times a day yon will say, There lies my poor dead 
and damned boy who never heard me pray, who 
never had good advice from me, who never heard of 
God from me! " That is the saddest thing that a dy- 
ing child ever said to his father. If my wife did not 
pray for my children night and morning in my ab- 
sence I should be very unhappy. I would not trust 
my children to any woman who would not take them 
to a closet and kneel down and pray with them. My 
wife told me of a very affecting thing the other morn- 
ing. She said: "The first time you were away from 
home I was so sick I could not get up and pray with 
the children. I was in a doze under the effects of the 
medicine, and heard Mary say to the servant, ' Do not 
bring the breakfast in yet; we are not ready.' She then 
called her little brothers into the other room and said, 
t Father is away from home ; God bless sick mamma, 
and bless papa and help him to do good.' They got off 
their knees and then went out to breakfast, and not a 
word was said about it." Thank God. we will have 
prayers at our home! and some of these days when I 
leave this old world — sometimes I feel I do n't care 
how soon — I will be happy in the thought. 

Out at Waco, Texas, after I had worked for eight 
months almost incessantly, I was taken down with mala- 
rial fever. My nerve forces were run down. The devil 
came into the room and said: "You will die right 
here; you have not got enough vital force to live.' 



Sermons and Sayings. 77 



I said, "Get out of this room!" If I had to go over 
it all again, I would not strike a lick less. I do n't 
know when I shall get in my work here, but I shall be 
happy in dying; and I shall be happy forever, if I am 
faithful. When I get to heaven I do n't know what I 
shall do with myself. It is a great heaven, I know it 
is. I want to see mother and father; I want to walk 
and talk with Christ. There are a thousand and ten 
thousand things I want to see. When I stand under 
the tree of life and see my precious wife walk up un- 
der that tree, then I shall take her by the hand and 
say, "Blessed be God, we worked, lived, and labored 
together on earth, and now we are in heaven!" And 
after awhile I shall see an archangel wing his way to- 
ward us, and, brushing little Mary from under his wing, 
he will say, "You have trained her for everlasting life, 
and here she is." And by and by the archangel will 
wing his way back again, and take little Annie from 
under his wing, saying: "You gave her to God in her 
youth, and he gives her back to you in heaven." And 
so on until the last one shall be swept in. Glory to 
God! Blessed be God for a heaven for all of us! 



SAYINGS. 

God, have mercy on a man who professes to be a 
Christian and has not got it from head to foot! 

Many a fellow is praying for rain with his tub bot- 
tom side up. God cannot fill a tub when it is wrong 
side up without reversing the law of gravity. God is 
holding up his clouds for you while you are holding 
your tubs wrong side up. Turn them up, and push 
them close under the eaves, for the shower is coming 



78 Sermons and payings. 



Religion is just as much a reality with me as that 
I have my hand on this poplar railing — as that I have 
four fingers on each hand. "I believe" is the ground 
on which I stand. 

You say you have doubts, you little cymling-head! 
No wonder. Now if you will pull up one of your 
doubts by the roots, you will find something on the 
tap-root, and the name of that something is sin. 

I am no metaphysician, but I can see a hole through 
a ladder if there is any light on the other side. There 
was very little metaphysics when the jailer stood trem- 
bling and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" 

I would rather associate with a hog than with a man 
who drinks whisky. A man might associate with a hog 
until he becomes hoggish, but he would not become 
a drunkard. Just as morals are above manners, bo a 
hog is a better associate than a dram-drinker. 

Creed! What is a creed? It is the skin of the 
truth dried and stuffed with sand and sawdust. If I 
had a creed I would sell it to a museum. Orthodoxies 
have ruined the world. My, my! how a man will nVht 
for his doxie, and then see his Saviour insulted ar»d 
never resent it! You must not step on my creed; If 
you du, you are a goner! 




SERMON VI 

Mother, Home, He ^ yen, 

(A Sermon to Mothers.) 
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that 
ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, 
which is your reasonable service," etc. (Rom. jrii.) 

[E are going to select a peculiar subject, or text, 
for this occasion. If you will open your Bi- 
bles when you get home and begin at the 
first verse of the twelfth chapter of St. Paul to 
the Romans, you will find the text. I do n't know 
how far I shall go down in this chapter. There are a 
great many things in it for us; and, as I said, the 
service to-day is especially in the interest of mothers 
and for mothers. Mother, home, heaven! You take 
these three words, and see how closely they are asso- 
ciated in the minds of all men. Mother! the sweet- 
est word that belongs to earth. Home ! what is home 
without a mother? We stop here long enough to 
say that Nero's mother was a bloody murderess, and 
she gave to this world the most cruel man the world 
ever saw. He could fiddle and dance over burning 
Rome. Lord Byron's mother was a proud, intellect- 
ual woman; and she gave to this world one of the 
most profligate intellectual autocrats the world ever 
saw. John Wesley's mother was a sensible, religious 
painstaking, good woman; and she gave to this world 
one of the grandest characters we ever had. George 
Washington's mother was a simple-hearted, strong- 
minded, pious, good woman; and she gave to thie 

(79^ 



80 Sermons and Sayings. 



country a man whom we honor with the title of "Fa- 
ther of his country." No wonder some one said, "If I 
could mother the world, I could save the world." " The 
hand that rocks the cradle rules the world." To show 
you the importance of the training of children, and 
the importance of a child having a mother to train it: 
In one of the Eastern cities the good women met and 
mingled in common prayer for their households. The 
meeting was called together by mothers to discuss the 
interest of children and home; and in that meeting 
they discussed the ages at which we ought to begin to 
train children. One mother got up and said, "I com- 
mence with my children at six years of age." Another 
said, "I begin with mine at five years of age; I think 
that is the time to begin." Another said, "We ought 
to begin when our children are only four years of 
age." Another said, "I think you should begin at 
three." By and by an old gray-headed mother got 
up and said: "I will tell you when you ought to begin 
— twenty years before the birth of the child, on its 
mother; and give it a good mother, and then you need 
not worry about its training." I never have any thing 
to say about when to commence to train the children. 
J want to know when you commenced on the mother of 
the child. There is a heap in that. I say to you all 
to-day that in the light of the Scriptures if you will 
give me a good mother, and take all the other means 
of grace away from me, I believe I can make my way 
to the good world; but if you give me an irreligious, 
godless mother, and then throw all the other means 
of grace around me, my chances for heaven are pretty 
slim. There is nothing in the economy of grace that 
can make up to your child that which it loses in the 



Sekmons and Sayings. 81 



fact that it does not have a good mother. I know I 
can never recover from the fact that I lost my precious 
mother when I was a little boy. Twice happy that 
family and that child whose mother loves God with all 
her heart, and loves her neighbor as herself. The 
text we read to-day is this: "I beseech you therefore, 
brethren; " and I will change one word there, and say: 
"I beseech you therefore, mothers, by the mercies of 
God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, 
holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable 
service. And be not conformed to this world; but be 
ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye 
may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and per- 
fect will of God. For I say, through the grace given 
unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think 
of himself more highly than he ought to think; but 
to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every 
man the measure of faith." We read these three 
verses because the first verse wisely understood will 
adjust you rightly toward God. As a mother you 
need that. There are difficulties in your life and 
there are problems in your home that can never be 
settled without the wisdom and cooperation of God. 
Every mother ought to be on intimate terms with 
God. You need his counsel to guide you, his wisdom 
to direct you, his grace to sustain you, and his Spirit 
to enlighten you. There are problems and questions 
in your home-life that no one but God can settle wise- 
ly and correctly. If you will know God personally, 
and will adjust yourself fully toward God, then all 
the love and grace of his heart will be poured into 
your heart and life day by day. Happy that mother 
who has settled the question between her own soul 



82 Sermons and Sayings. 



and God. My Father and my God, I am thine forever! 
I will be thine always! That self -dedicatory life that 
gives itself fully to God. God himself asks us the 
question, if we will freely give ourselves to him. A 
mother who has given herself to God is in an atti- 
tude to give her children to him; and you will never 
give your children to God until you have given your- 
self to him. We may give ourselves to the Church 
— that is helpful; we may give ourselves to good asso- 
ciations — that is helpful; but, sister, there is -no self- 
dedication that is worth much to you in this world 
except that self -dedication that gives your life to God. 
The first and lowest expression of love is the love of 
trust. This we see manifested in the child toward its 
mother. There is a sort of love that we call the love 
of admiration, which admires the true, the noble, and 
the good, and makes us aspire to it. That is a higher 
order of love. Of all love, that is the most sublime 
which you see illustrated when the bride and bride- 
groom walk up to the altar. He gives himself to her, 
and she gives herself to him. There they are; and 
if they are married according to God's ordinances, 
he doesn't consult his own wishes — he just wants to 
know what his wife wants; and she does n't consult her 
own wishes — she just wants to know what will please 
her husband. Now, sister, when you give yourself to 
God all you want to know is what will please God, 
what he wants, what he desires; and if I know that, 
the best moments of my life are spent doing his will. 
The best part of a good husband's life is when he is 
doing something for his wife, and the best part of a 
good wife's life is when she is doing something foi 
her husband. Sister, a right adjustment of your soul 



Sekmons and Sayings. 83 



toward God is that adjustment which puts you on his 
altar and makes you stay there forever. I believe the 
greatest moral monstrosity in the universe is an im- 
pious woman. I can understand how men can be 
wicked; I can understand how men can be wicked, 
and turn their backs on God, and live in sin; but the 
greatest moral monstrosity is a woman with the ten- 
der arms of her children around her, their eyes look- 
ing up into her eyes with innocence and love, and that 
mother despising God in her heart. I wish every 
mother that hears my voice this morning would just 
say: "On God's altar I put myself to-day, and I put 
myself there to stay forever. Now, Lord, let the fire 
come and burn up every thing that ought to be burned 
up; and if there is any thing left, take it and use it 
to the glory of thy name and the good of my children.'* 
When you come to where you would rather please 
God than to please society, you are getting about right. 
O that every mother on the face of this earth was a 
consecrated mother — consecrated to God, to love him 
with all her heart, and to love her neighbor as herself! 
And, sister, you will never know how God can help a 
mother with her children until you realize in your 
heart that you are consecrated to God through and 
through, all over and forever. Bishop Marvin said 
he had the best mother in the world. I believe 
that Bishop Marvin was the grandest man my eyes 
ever looked upon. He said: "When I was a little boy 
four years old lying on my mother's lap while sho 
was singing 

'Loving Jesus, gentle Lamb! 
In thy gracious hands I am : 
Make me, Saviour, what thou art, 
Livp thyself within my heart,' 



84 Sekmons and Sayings. 



all at once my mother stopped singing and broke 
out shouting; and as she clapped her hands a tear 
dropped from her eye and fell on my cheek, when 
a delightful sensation crept over me; and I believe 
that I was born to Christ at that moment, when just 
four years of age and on my mother's knee." Thank 
God for these singing, shouting mothers! There is 
music in their voices. If you have any objection to 
them, you are meaner than I was in my worst days. 

"Be not conformed to this world; but be ye trans- 
formed by the renewing of your mind." The worldly 
element in this town has been setting the fashion long 
enough. Thank God, society is down in ashes one 
more time this side of hell! and you will never get all 
the ashes off until you come to God. Last week a 
young lady tried her best to get up a german, and 
could find but three girls in town willing to go into it. 
I think we are getting along swimmingly. I want to 
t&lk to you a little about your adjustment to this 
world. This old world only goes to where it is invited 
and welcomed. Thank God, this old world has never 
seen the time when it did not take its hat off and 
make a decent bow to a good woman! An infidel at- 
tacks every thing in the universe but a good moth- 
er. Bob Ingersoll can attack his old hypocritical 
father, the old Presbyterian preacher, and he can 
take him out and shoot him in all his hypocrisy 
and corruption; but Bob has never said a word about 
his Christian mother. An infidel can get over and 
around every thing but a good woman. He walks up 
to a good woman, takes off his hat, makes a decent 
bow, turns around and goes back. That is as far aa 
he can go. I tell you, my brethren, if we just had a 



Sekmons and Sayings. 85 



solid phalanx of good mothers to fight infidelity and 
the devil, we would put them to flight and run them 
out of this country. If there is any thing I despise 
it is the ways and doings of so-called society. Of 
course I do n't believe that God put us in this world 
never to speak to anybody. There is what we call so- 
cial life; but society, as contradistinguished from so- 
cial life, is a very different thing. A reformed soci- 
ety woman! You don't believe in that; but I saw 
one, and if I could tell you what she told me you 
would agree with me that society is a heartless old 
wretch that is cursing every city in America. 

I will tell you how we run things. Listen to me. 
We absolutely train our children so as to harden them 
against the truth of God, and have them ready for 
damnation before they are grown. I will tell you 
how this is done. When the child is eight or ten 
years old your husband comes home, and you say, 
"To-morrow is Mary's birthday, and I am going to 
give a little party for her." "O but," the husband 
says, "our children are not old enough." "I know 
that, husband; but I'll just have a little party, be- 
cause, you know, everybody has little parties. There 
is no harm in a little party — just a little one." And 
there are children in this town not ten years old who 
ain't satisfied if they can't have a little party once a 
month. What is a little party ? . It is nothing but a 
big party with short clothes on. What is a big party? 
It is nothing in the world but the ante-room to a ba] l- 
room. And what is a ball-room ? It is the ante-room 
to a german. And what is a german? It is the ante- 
room to eternal disgrace. And what is eternal dis- 
grace? It is hell -fire. Now you see how it goes Oo 



86 Sermons and Sayings. 



this path, before your children are twenty years old 
they are absolutely steeled against the Lord, and 
turned toward damnation. I am just going to have a 
little party, that is all. Whenever you hear that I 
have had a little party, you can say that Mr. Jones is 
dead. He died last night. My children do n't have 
any parties, but they have more fun than any other 
five children in the State of Georgia. I do feel sick 
for any poor woman who has to have a little party 
to keep the' children enjoying themselves. Mother, 
I do n't know whether your children need a little party, 
but they need a mother mighty bad! They do; they 
do. Look at your children at home. What do they 
care for heaven and everlasting life? Before your 
little girl is ten years old she is banged and primped 
up like an old maid of sixty. And I love all the old 
maids. I would not hurt the feelings of one of them 
for the world. Whenever you see an old maid it is 
because some man has not done his duty, or she was 
too particular. I have seen children ten years old so 
wrought up with what they wear and what they are 
going to do that you can absolutely do nothing with 
them on a higher plane in life. The little street mon- 
keys were never prouder of their red sacks than your 
children are with the toys and finery of this life; and 
the monkey has just about as much religion as your 
children have. Some of you women look innocent. 
You look as if all you wanted was a pair of wings to 
fly off with. You had better go home and reform 
your households before you go to heaven. 

The first question in this world is this question: 
"What will become of my children?" I notice this 
spring that little Anna has on Mary's dresses. Little 



Seemons and Savings. 87 



Mary has outgrown them. I notice that little Paul 
has on Bob's coat. Bob has outgrown it. I say, 
"Wife, see how these little fellows are growing;" but 
they are growing a heap faster in my heart. When 
they are young they step on our toes, and when they 
are grown up they step on our hearts. O you moth- 
ers ought to go in partnership with God in rearing 
your children! 

A wise adjustment of my home toward this world! 
There are some people who will let their children go 
to parties at other folks's houses, and won't let them 
have one at their own house. That is as mean as dirt. 
One worldly woman in a settlement will ruin the whole 
settlement. The other children will go home and say: 
"Mrs. So and So did so and so, and Mrs. So and So 
said so and so. Mamma, you must be mighty mean, 
because you don't do it." You hold your position 
and influence; and if the devil ever sweeps over youi 
home, let it be after you are gone. A right adjust- 
ment toward this world! We will say, in the next 
place, that you ought not to go anywhere or do any 
thing that you do n't want your children to go or to do 
now and forever. There are women in one city that I 
know of who stop on the way home and drink lager- 
beer with their children. If you ain't a pretty moth- 
er if you do that, then I do n't know what I am talk- 
ing about. I can in some sort tolerate a man that 
dissipates, but when a woman sets the example I am 
sorry for that little orphan she has hold of. 

I received a letter, which said: "Brother Jones, foi 
mercy's sake, please say something about women eat- 
ing morphine and opium. This evil is powerfully 
prevalent in our midst Do n't fail, please." Signed 



88 Sermons and Sayings. 



"Many ladies and one druggist." That druggist knew 
what he was talking about. O to see a mother almost 
imbruted by this fearful drug! My, my! the saddest 
family in the State of Georgia is the family where 
morphine has ruined father and mother and the little 
children from four years to fourteen. They are abso- 
lutely stupid with it all the day long. No woman is 
fit to be a mother who is habitually under the influ- 
ence of morphine and opium; and if you carry that 
on till you die, and do n't go to hell, then there is no 
hell. Never do any thing or say any thing that you 
do n't want your children to do and say. Like a moth- 
er saying, "Mary, what is that I heard you say?" 
" I said so and so." " If I ever hear you say that 
again I will whip you." "Why, mamma, I heard 
you say it one day!" "I don't care if you did; I 
am grown, I am grown, daughter." Yes, I hope your 
daughter will quit that sort of meanness before she is 
grown. The idea of a woman pleading that she does 
things that she doesn't want her children to do be- 
cause she is grown ! " Daughter, did you go down and 
see so and so? " "Yes." "If you ever do it again I 
will whip you." "Why, mamma, you did it!" "Yes, 
and I want you to understand that your mother is 
grown." Sister, have you not said that? You need 
not look so innocently at me. I am grown! 

[ reckon you have heard of the good wife. It is an 
illustration of a good many others. I said to a fussy 
mother one day, after she had just f railed a little fel- 
Lav out in the yard for fussing, "Did it ever strike 
you where they got the idea of fussing from? " And 
she answered me: "I reckon it is born in them. Do 
vou know where they get it?" And I said, "They £et 



Sermons and Sayings. 89 



it from you and their father." Many a wife teachea 
her children to fuss by fussing with the old man, and 
then whips them for it. As the mother who fell out 
with her husband and threw a chair at him and missed / 
him, and hit the motto, "God, bless our home!" the; 
children said, "Mamma missed papa's head, but did n't) 
she give the motto a bringer! " Never quarrel before" 
your children; or, in other words, never quarrel at all. 
Rightly adjusted toward this world means this* "As 
far as this world is concerned, I tell it to keep its dis- 
tance. You must not come in on me. I am the child 
of God, and my children are the children of God, and 
we won't have these things about us." The more you 
do for God, the more he will help you with your chil- 
dren. The woman that never helped the Lord never 
got much help from the Lord. The best way to help 
yourself is to help somebody else. You take society 
about this town. If I had the money that the Chris- 
tian women, so called, pay at the theater during the 
year, I could run every charitable institution in this 
town grandly. That is a fact. You can't walk to 
church — it is too far; but you will walk the next night 
a third farther to the theater, and your husband does 
not really want to go. Let us try and reform our- 
selves on this line. Let us try and live for others and 
not for ourselves. Take the woman's mission home 
work in this town. There is not a woman who hears 
my voice to-day who ought not to contribute a mite to 
that once a month. If you want to help your chil- 
dren, you help the Lord in something, and you will 
find out that the Lord is helping you sure enough. 
Take the Methodist women of this town: Here is the 
foreign mission work — the first organized work that 



90 Sermons and Sayings. 



woman ever proposed to do for Christ; and this or- 
ganized work is to go into the heart of China. Here 
in this town, the head center of the Church of the 
South, how many members have you? I hope these 
foreign missionary societies will have two thousand 
members before long. Some people say they don't 
believe in woman's work. There is an old preacher 
down in Georgia who preaches against woman's work, 
and that preacher has not had a conversion since the 
war. If you want to follow that old stick you can do 
so. If you will show me a pastor in this city that 
does n't believe in woman's work I will show you a pas- 
tor that is of no account. Now, listen to me a moment. 
When Eve tempted Adam and Adam fell through the 
temptation, the Lord came up, and Adam and Eve 
hid; and when the Lord questioned Adam he showed 
himself a pusillanimous wretch by laying it on his 
wife. I despise that in Adam. I believe I would just 
ha^e broken out and said I ate it sure enough. The 
Lord called the woman unto him, and said, "I put en- 
mity between you and the serpent." And God im - 
planted in every woman's nature an inveterate hatred 
of the devil; and your success for both worlds de- 
pends on how you live out that principle. Die fight- 
ing him. Eight him anywhere and everywhere, in an 
organized capacity and single-handed. If your chil- 
dren have a consecrated mother, the question is pretty 
well settled with them for this world and the next. 

A woman is naturally a very sharp trader, and very 
tew women have any conscience when it comes to a 
trade. You will sell an old pair of trousers for more 
than your husband gave for them when new, and then 
brag about it. You will hire a woman to cook for you 



Sermons and Sayings. 91 



at four dollars a month, and then brag about how cheap 
you got her. You will go to the store and give four 
dollars a yard for a piece of goods — and the more it 
costs the better you like it — and then you will go over 
to Sister Brown, a poor, good woman in your Church, 
and give her half a dollar for making it; and if the dev- 
il does n't get you it is because he ain't got any thing 
against Sister Brown. The meanest woman in the""\ 
world is the woman who will give four dollars a yard 
for her dress, and then go over to that poor old wom- 
an who is a member of her Church and Jew her down 
to the last nickel she can get her to make it for. Of 
course you do n't do it that way in this city ; but 
those trifling Georgia women! Don't you fall into 
their bad practices. Yery few women have any con- 
science when they come to trading. They think the 
better trade it is the better it is. I reckon they learn 
that from us, brethren. Let us let our children see 
that in all things we do right. I would rather give 
two dollars a yard for that dress, and give Sister 
Brown twenty dollars for making it, than give four 
dollars a yard for the dress and give Sister Brown 
four dollars and fifty-five cents for making it, and 
what buttons are left over. Let us quit that. 

I am just going to show you two pictures, and you 
can carry them home with you. Some of you have 
brought them with you. I won't call your name, but 
you know your number. Here is a mother; there 
is a little girl. The little girl comes in and says, 
"Mamma, please give me some scraps for my doll 
dress." And the mother says: "I won't -do it. Yon 
have wasted more scraps than you are worth; and if 
you bother me any more I will whip you." LittJe 



92 Sermons and Sayings. 



Annie goes out with her head drooped. In a few 
minutes she comes back and says, "Please give me 
some thread." " There you are again, you little vix- 
en! I wish you would get your things and go over 
to Mrs. Brown and see if you can't worry her." And 
little Annie goes out saying: "I just wish that I was 
dead, that is all I wish. Mamma has never a kind 
word for me." The next day she comes back, and 
says, " Mamma, loan me your thimble, please ma'am." 
* You took my thimble yesterday, and it took me two 
hours to find it. If I catch you at it again I will 
make you dance." Little Annie walks out, saying. 
"I wish mamma was dead. She is just as mean as 
she can be." After awhile she comes back and says. 
"Please, mamma, lend me your scissors." "I sha'n't 
do it. You just want them to stick your eyes out." 
And little Annie goes away; and by and by she grows 
up, and she is the terror of that neighborhood. O 
she is a sight on wheels! You go to see her mother, 
and she does n't know what is the matter with her little^ 
Annie— "Lord knows I have done my best." There 
is but one trouble with Annie. She is just like that 
old mother. She is a chip off the old block. Many 
a woman in this country is rearing her children just 
that way. A good plan for a young man is to court 
the whole family, but don't marry but one. I want 
to court my mother-in-law and father-in-law and my 
wife's sister, and find out what sort of people they 
are. I want to know what sort of a family I am mar- 
rying into. There is a heap in that. 

Now for the other picture. Here is a mother sit- 
ting by her sewing-machine, and little Mary comes up 
and says, "Mamma, please give me some scraps to 



Sermons and Sayings. 93 



dress my doll." And the mother says: "Yes, my dear, 
in -a moment. I was just sitting here thinking about 
you; and the one desire of my heart is to see you 
grow up a Christian girl. Now, you are just six years 
old. Now, darling, will you listen to mamma read a 
verse or two before she gives you the scraps?" Mam- 
ma gets down the Bible, and she reads, "Bemembei 
now thy Creator in the days of thy youth," and so 
on. Now she says : " Darling, do you know what that 
means? That means that you ought to give your 
young heart to God and be a Christian all your days." 
In a moment the mother gives her the scraps, and 
Mary walks out, saying: "I know I have just got the 
best mother in the world. She is so good to me." 
The next day Mary comes in and says, "Lend me 
your thimble, mamma; I have lost mine." And the 
mother says, "Do you remember that verse I read to 
you?" "Yes, mamma; and I recollect what you said 
it meant. You said it meant I ought to begin now to 
be a Christian girl; and, mamma, I got down on my 
knees and prayed the best I could for God to help me 
to be good just like my mamma." The next day little 
Mary comes back and says, "Mamma, will you please 
lend me your scissors?" And mamma says: "Yes, 
child; but I have not prayed with you to-day. Will 
you go into the closet and pray with mamma? " " Yes, 
mamma, I will go with you." Mamma takes little 
Mary by the hand and leads her into the closet. I 
can see the disappointed angels stand around. They 
wanted to get in to see what God was going to do with 
that mother and little Mary. And by and by the 
mother comes out with a glow of beauty on her cheek 
and little Mary holding her finger; and as little Mary 



94 Sermons and Sayings. 



walked out, a tear that would not have stained an an. 
gel's cheek ran down her bright face; and an angel 
pushed his hand under it and caught the tear, and 
winged his way back to God and called the heavenly 
hosts together, and said, "Here is the tear of a sweet 
little girl whose mother is training her for this bright 
world of ours." God bless mothers for their good 
children! Here is Mary now sixteen years old, and 
everybody says she is the pride of the settlement. 
She is a blessing to the whole community; and they 
look on her and say, " How is it she is such a sweet, 
good girl?" It is because she is just like her good 
mother. God give us good mothers, and then we 
will have good Annies and Marys. Thank God for a 
precious mother in heaven to-day ! If I ever get to 
heaven, and the angels congratulate me on getting 
there, I will say: "Hunt up my precious mother, who 
took me by the hand and led me along until I was 
eight years old, and then took me by the hand and 
said, 'I can never come back to you; you can come 
to me.'" I believe that every redeemed spirit in 
heaven will have a happy mother to join it there. 
Now, let all who want to be better stand up. 



SAYINGS. 

I can understand how men can be wicked; I can 
understand how a man can turn his back on God and 
live in sin; but the greatest moral monstrosity to me 
is a mother with the tender arms of her children 
about her neck and their eyes looking up into hers 
with innocence and love, and that mother despising 
God in her heart. 



Sebmons and Sayings. 95 



Thank God, society is down in the ashes one more 
time this side of hell — even your own society! And 
you will never get the ashes off until you come to God. 
When you come to where you would rather please 
God than to please society, you are getting about 
right. 

If I ever get to heaven, and the angels congratulate 
me on getting there, I will say : " Hunt up my precious 
mother, who took me by the hand and led me along 
until I was eight years old, and then said, 'Son, you 
can come to me, but I cannot come back to you;'" and 
she went home to live with the angels forever. 

Thank God, this old world has never seen the time 
when it did not take its hat off and make a decent bow 
to a good woman! The infidel can get over and 
around every thing but a good woman. He walks up 
to a good woman, takes off his hat, makes a respect- 
ful bow, turns around and goes back. That is as far 
as he can go. 

Just a little party! What is a little party? It is a 
big party in short clothes. What is a big party? It 
is the ante-room to a ball-room. And what is a ball- 
room? It is the ante-room to a german. And what 
is a german? It is hugging set to music, and the 
ante-room to eternal disgrace. And what is eternal 
disgrace? It is hell-fire — that's it. Whenever you 
hear that I have had a little party at my house, you 
can just say that Mr. Jones is dead. He died last 
night. 




SERMON VII. 
The Fruits of the Spirit. 

(A Sermon to Wives.) 

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gen- 
tleness, goodness, faith," etc. (Galatians v.) 

E will discuss somewhat the relations of wife 
to husband, of the wife to home, and of the 

wife to society. These twain shall be one flesh, 
and this holy relation is blessed of God. And God 
blesses this holy relation just in proportion as we sus- 
tain this relation in a scriptural sense. At this point 
I throw out this little illustration. A pastor in one of 
the cities in our Conference told me this. Said he: 
"Just after I was stationed at this place I married one 
of my Christian young men to a worldly-minded, un- 
christian girl; and a few days after that I married one 
of my Christian girls to a worldly-minded, wicked 
man." Sometimes this is a mistake as long as eter- 
nity. "But," said he, "before six months had passed 
away the Christian girl had brought her worldly 
husband to Christ, and he had joined the Church; 
and before six months had passed away the gay and 
giddy girl had taken her husband out of the Church, 
and he was going arm in arm with her to hell." There 
are two things for you to think of. That good girl 
had her husband on the way to heaven in less than 
six months after the time she had married him; that 
worldly girl had her husband out of the Church, and 
they were walking together to death and hell. Now, 
you wives who do not profess to be Christians, look 
at your husbands from head to foot. 

(96) 



Sermons and Sayings. 97 



The verses we select for this discussion are in the 
fifth chapter of Galatians: "Now the works of the 
flesh are manifest, which are these: Adultery, forni- 
cation, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witch- 
craft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, sedi- 
tions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, rev- 
elings, and such like; of the which I tell you be- 
fore, as I have also told you in time past, that they 
which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom 
of God." This is one side of the subject clearly pre- 
sented. The other side is this : " But the fruit of the 
Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, 
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such 
there is no law." Now, we have before us to-day the 
fruits of a worldly life clearly given. We also have 
before us the fruits of a godly life. I have known a 
long time that I mast be something in order that 1 
may do something. The Scriptures teach me clearly 
that my life can never be better than my heart. The 
Scriptures teach me that a bad tree cannot bring 
forth good fruit; neither can a good tree bring forth 
bad fruit. It also teaches me that no salt fountain 
can send forth fresh water; neither can a fresh fount- 
ain send forth salt water. I want to talk to-day mostly 
on being, and not so much on doing. The line of de- 
markation is so clearly drawn that were I to hesitate 
for a moment as to whether I am a child of God, that 
very hesitancy would be a sin in the sight of God. 
There are unmistakable signs, unmistakable evidences, 
of a Christian's life about which you can't be deceived, 
and about which you will never deceive anybody else. 
I can tell yi m what we want in this world : wives with 
pure hearts and pure spirits; and then their lives and 



96 Sermons and Sayings. 



characteristics, as tliey touch all around them, will be 
salutary for good, and only good. 

We propose to discuss this text this morning in a 
practical way; and if in your life and character can 
be found these fruits of the Spirit, you will be a bless- 
ing to your husband, and a blessing to your home, 
and a blessing to the world. The apostle says, " The 
fruit of the Spirit." The ultimatum of all vegetation 
is matured fruit. You take that oak-tree out yonder: 
a few months ago it budded and blossomed, and now 
you see the matured acorn upon it. Since the ap- 
pearance of the little acorn the tree has bent all its 
energies toward furnishing it nutriment; it draws 
food from its roots, and drinks in from the atmos- 
phere all the vital forces, and pours its Jife into 
the little acorn. I see that little acorn growing and 
developing and extending until by and by there is a 
well-rounded, ripe, symmetrical acorn; and as soon 
as the tree matures the acorn it goes back into its 
winter-quarters. And from the first appearance of 
that bud, the whole energies of that tree were toward 
the developing of the fruit. So with your apple-tree 
in your orchard; it buds and blossoms, and then it 
commences to pour the vital forces into the little ap- 
ple— day after day and week after week — until by and 
by we see the well-rounded, luscious apple. And as 
soon as the tree ripens the fruit the leaves drop off, 
and the tree goes back into winter-quarters. So with 
all vegetation. Now I grant you that there are many 
intervening difficulties between the bud and the ripe 
fruit. There are worms that gnaw at the vitals of the 
tree; there are the cold winds of April and the frosts 
of May; there are very many intervening difficulties 



Sermons and Sayings. 99 



between the blossom and the ripe apple; yet the tree 
is valuable only as it overleaps them all and matures 
the fruit. Just as. the ultimatum of all vegetation is 
the matured fruit, so the ultimatum of Christian life 
is the maturing of Christian fruitage. " The fruit of 
the Spirit is love." Every woman that has ever bud- 
ded into a Christian's life realized that there was a 
moment in her experience when she loved everybody 
on the face of the earth. God is love, and he that 
loveth is born of God. Bless your life, down in Geor- 
gia about twelve years ago I loved everybody one mo- 
ment, and I have been at it ever since! If you will 
find me a man on the face of the earth I don't love, 
and bring him here to me, I will hug him till he 
howls. 

This world is the fruit-bearing world. Up yonder 
we will eat and rejoice forever over the fruit we have 
matured here below. Between the bud and the blos- 
som and the ripe fruit of love there are many difficul 
ties. There are the cold winds of neglect, and tin 
biting frosts of temptation; there are a thousand inter- 
vening difficulties between the blossom and the ripe 
fruit. 

Do you know that nine-tenths of our troubles are 
because we are not developing this fruit of love? 1 
knew two brothers in Georgia who got mad at each 
other, and they quarreled and quarreled; and I tried 
to get them to settle it, and then I tried to get them 
to fight it out. At a big camp-meeting I saw these 
two brothers out hugging each other, as happy as 
they coull be. I took one of them aside and asked 
him how he could pray, since he had been mad so 
long. He said: "If I have acted the rascal I ain'i 



1(H) Sermons and Sayings. 



acted the fool. I ain't been on my knees since I got 
mad. As soon as I got on my knees to pray I saw 
how it was, and I made the difficulty all right." How 
many women in this tent positively refuse to speak 
to some other women in this tent? Mad! I am mad! 
"Dogs delight to bark and bite; it is their nature 
to." Everybody in this world — male and female — 
has a lovable side to character and an unlovable side 
to character. You turn the lovable side of your char- 
acter on everybody else, and everybody will love you. 
You turn the unlovable side of your character to 
every one, and they will do the same. I moved into 
a settlement once, and the man I lived next-door 
neighbor to was not liked by anybody, and he did 
not like anybody. I went in there and turned the 
lovable side of my character to him, and he did the 
same to me. I found out that when he came there 
he had turned the unlovable side of his character to 
every one, and every one had turned their unlovable 
side to him. Now, sister, if nobody loves you, it is 
your own fault; if everybody is mad with you, it is 
your own fault. People say: "Jones doesn't believe 
in social life." Bless you, I am the most social man 
you ever saw! I believe in social life. Take McKen- 
dree Church: there are about a dozen members who 
have a visiting acquaintance with you. For the rest 
you care nothing, and they care nothing for you. 
TV hen all you members of that Church get to heaven 
the angels will have to introduce you. "This is Mrs. 
So and So, a member of McKendree Church." " Why; 
I am a member of that Church! " "Are you a mem- 
ber of that Church? I never knew you." You are 
ffoing to keep the angels mighty busy introducing you 



Sermons and Sayings. 101 



to each other. Love, love! I wish I could see this 
sort of business done away with, and every woman in 
town in love with every other woman in town. Some 
women who hear me now have not got a dozen friends 
in town to-day. I would hate to live in a town as 
big as this if I could not have ten thousand friencU 
in it. Count up your friends, sister, and see how 
many you have, and you may be astonished that you 
have so many. Just look at the thing in the right di- 
rection. I love a woman who can mix with any soci- 
ety, while her presence purines all the elements. I 
love a woman who not only mixes in the best society, 
but in whose presence the poorest laboring woman 
feels at home. Thank God, I have got a wife on whom 
some helpless woman can lean! 

I want to tell you that big-meeting religion is not 
the best religion in the world. Once I heard of a 
woman going to fly to heaven from a big meeting like 
this; she attempted it, gave a flop, and down she 
came; and when she got up all the people were laugh- 
ing at her; and she said: "You need not be laugh- 
ing at me; I just did not get the right flop." That 
is where all the trouble was. I will tell you about 
a woman whose heart abounded in love, and the 
right sort of love, and she got the right flop, and went 
in all right. One morning after breakfast she went 
into her cook-room and took a waiter from the shelf, 
and set a nice piece of toast, and a piece of chick- 
en, and a piece of ham, and a cup of coffee, and 
a glass of jelly on the waiter, and started out; she 
went down the street, and turned and went into an 
alley, and went up to a low hovel and knocked at the 
door; a fa nt voicti said, " Come in," and she walked iuto 



102 Sermons and Sayings. 



the room, and when she walked in there lay a poor 
sick widow, with her unkempt, unwashed, hungry chil- 
dren around her. And the woman wet the corner of 
a towel and bathed the fevered face of the woraan, 
and then she sat down and fed the woman and liei 
children; then she inquired for her Bible, and got up 
and took down the Testament and read, " The Lord is 
my shepherd, I shall not want," etc.; and she prayed, 
" O Lord, I have fed this poor woman and her chil- 
dren on earthly food, now feed us on spiritual." And 
I saw from the glow of beauty on her cheeks, and the 
light of love in her eyes, that she had been to heaven 
sure enough, where God and the angels are. 

Sometimes I go home from meetings hungry. I 
want something better than the meetings can furnish 
me. I say, " Wife, I am going up to see that poor old 
colored woman on the hill — old Aunt Ann." We go 
up the hill, and go to the old woman's house. She is 
always glad to see us. We stay there about an hour 
with her; then we take down the Bible and read and 
sing and pray with her; and as we leave the house 
Aunt ^nn says: "God, bless Mars Sam! he is always 
like ar- angel when he comes here; and if I ever get 
to hea fen I will tell the angels how good he is to 
me." When I get to heaven and knock at the door 
Chrisl will say, "On what grounds do you let him 
in?" f I was a-hungered, and he fed me; I was naked, 
and hj clothed me; I was sick, and he visited ma 
Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these 
my brethren, ye have done it unto me." That is enough. 

Love is the great leveler; it knocks down all the 
obstacles. I was preaching in a town in Georgia 
one?, and was discussing brotherly love; and when I 



Sermons and Sayings. 103 



got to that point where brotherly love makes you love 
all alike, they told me this: "When Sister A. gets sick, 
how good they all are to her. She lives in the finest 
house in the city, and has the best cook and servants ; 
and when she is sick all the people around are send- 
ing her good things to eat; they bring it into her 
room, and the sick woman says, 'Just take it out into 
the dining-room.' They take it in and set it down 
on the dinner-table, and the servants eat it up. She 
hardly ever sees the food. See how the ladies go to 
see her ! By and by the doctor says we must shut off 
all company. Then they muffle the door-bell, and the 
servants go in the back way every hour asking how 
Mrs. A. is." And I said: " Thank God, I think I have 
been in one community that is good to the sick!" 
But out in the suburbs, on the hill-side, is poor Sis- 
ter Snipe. I never heard the doctors say she must not 
have any more company; I never heard of any serv- 
ants going down to find out how poor Mrs. Snipe was. 
No one went there bearing her good things to eat. 
And when I got through the sermon a poor old soul 
came and took me by the hand, and said: " You just 
told them the truth; that is what they do." And I 
asked, "What is your name?" And she said, "My 
name is Snipe." And sure enough her name was 
Snipe, and she lived on the hill-side, and they had 
been treating her that way. Let me say to you, If 
you can't help but one family in town, let that be the 
family which needs the help. I have got a profound 
contempt for folks who are always helping folks that 
do n't need any help. Let us take care of old Sister 
Snipe. 

I heard that a leading business man m this city 



104 Sermons and Sayings. 



said the other day that no woman should be paid over 
fifty cents a day for her work. That man ought to be 
in hell, I do n't care who he is. And there is many a 
poor woman in this town working for less than that. 
The spirit of love on the part of you women will reg- 
ulate a great many things in this town. God hasten 
the time when a woman will get as much for the same 
work as a man! I understand that in some cities all 
that a woman gets for making a garment is from fif- 
teen to seventeen cents. A martyr to her business! 
There are some of the best women in the world toil- 
ing sixteen to seventeen hours a day to keep soul 
and body together. I met an old colored woman in 
the road and gave her the last dollar I had in my 
pocket, and I will never forget the look she gave me; 
it will bless me in eternity. 

How do you use your money? If you will help 
everybody else the Lord will help you. The Lord is 
not going to help you straighten out your husband 
unless you are of some account. If the spirit of love 
can control us, then we are made up for all worlds, 
for time and eternity. There is not a woman who 
can't break her husband down if she will only try. 
You begin to argue with him, and he will argue back, 
and he can beat you, generally. You go demanding 
something, and he will demand something back. But 
leave every thing else and begin crying, and he will 
say: "Now you hush crying, and I will do any tiling 
in the world for you. I can't stand that crying busi' 
ness." Love! The fruit of the Spirit is love. 

Joy, joy! I tell you, what we want in this country 
is joyous Christian homes. If there is any thing 
in this world a man craves it is a joyous, cheerful 



Seemons and Sayings. 105 



home. Wife, just ask yourself, "Why is it that my 
husband does n't want to spend his evenings at home? '' 
Here is a man whose wife never got after him for not 
spending his evenings at home. I am a sort of 
fellow that wants to be with his wife. She is the 
most lovable being in this world to me. A cheerful 
wife is a blessing to any man. 

Joyous Christian woman! happy all the time, and 
throwing sunshine on every thing that comes in con- 
tact with her. I am sorry for a woman whose hus- 
band sits up at night and reads trashy novels at 
home. Let me tell you that a man is known by the 
company he keeps, and his books are as much his 
company as any thing else. You will never get over 
a bad book. Let us go home and make a big bon- 
fire and burn up every thing in the house that is not 
clean. 

"Love, joy, and peace." Peace that defies all the 
powers o£ earth and conquers all the obstacles in its 
way. I went into the garden of an old brother and 
there was a tombstone, and he said, "There is the 
tombstone of my wife." I walked up and read the 
inscription: it gave her name, the date of her birth 
and the date of her death, and then just one line, 
and that line was this: "She made home pleasant." 
That was the grandest epitaph I ever saw on a wife's 
tombstone: "She made home pleasant." 

"Long-suffering." I like the spirit of long-suffer- 
ing, especially in wives. A wife and a husband ought 
to make this sort of a contract: that they will never 
both get mad at the same time. If you want to con- 
quer your husband you let him do his own quarreling, 
and you just sit right still and keep your mouth shut 



LOG Sermons and Sayings. 



"Gentleness." Beechgr once had^ a horse brought 
to him for a buggy-ride, and he asked, "Is that horse 
gentle?" And they answered: "Yes, sir; he is not 
afraid of any thing in the world, and he will work 
anywhere." And Beecher said: "I wish I had one 
member in my church like that — not afraid of any 
thing, and will work anywhere." I saw a great big 
fine bay horse once that would not work anywhere 
except to a light, striped buggy. These Sunday morn- 
ing eleven o'clock Christians are striped buggy fel- 
lows. Some of you have not been to church only at 
eleven o'clock Sunday morning for years. That is the 
dress-parade crowd. These striped buggy fellows! 
If you were to hitch them up to a prayer-meeting they 
would run away. If you were to hitch one of them 
up to family prayers he would kick the buggy all to 
pieces. It is a mighty hard matter to get any other 
woman in the church to be of any account when the 
preacher's wife is of no account. A liberal, cheerful, 
working woman is worth her weight in diamonds to 
any community. 

The spirit of gentleness and the spirit of temper- 
ance. Be not only temperate in regard to liquor, but 
be a total prohibitionist on that subject. Be temper- 
ate in your life. Many a woman has involved her 
husband in disgrace and ruin because she lived be- 
yond his means. I know men in this world whose 
noses have been to the grind-stone for years. They 
have gone beyond their means. Let us live with ir- 
on r means. The wife ought to talk with her husband 
about his means. Temperance — especially in whisky. 
You go home to-day, and if there is any thing in the 
house to drink break the demijohn on the bricks in 



Sermons and Sayings. 10? 



the back yard. Your children are watching you. You 
are sowing seed. 

If there is a human being on the face of the earth 
that I hate with an inveterate hatred it is a French 
dancing-master. I would put my children in the coils 
of the worms of the Nile before I would put them in 
his hands. There is not a bar-room on the face of 
the earth that is doing as much harm as a dancing- 
master. If there is one in this town you can tell him 
so. I would not wipe my feet on the rotten rascal! 
Some of you have got low enough down to send your 
children to a negro dancing-master. God pity you, 
if you ever went to such a depth as that! I will never 
deliberately turn my children over to any man and 
pay him by the month to train them up for damna- 
tion. I tell you, my sister, keep your children out of 
these things. Let us keep this evil influence away j 
from our homes. Lord God of heaven and earth, ) 
help us to help our children to heaven by all that is J 
temperate and good! ^ 

I have talked over an hour, and I expect I have 
talked longer than I ought to. I have covered as 
much ground as I could. I want to tell you here to- 
day that my heart is in all these things. Before I sit 
down I want to say just one word about card-playing. 
While I was preaching in Chattanooga a son went in 
and asked his mother to play a game of cards with 
him, but his mother said: "Son, I heard Brother 
Jones's lecture to-day, and they are going to have a 
meeting to-night, and I am going upstairs to pray." 
Be wanted his sister to play, but she had been con- 
verted and would not play. And the brother turned 
right around and went down the street to the mass- 



108 Sermons and Sayings. 



meeting, and went home that night a converted boy 
God pity the woman who has got time to sit down 
and play cards! Card-playing is a lazy woman's work. 
I never in my life saw a lazy woman of any account, 
Let us go home and burn up our cards, and never send 
a gambler out on the world. God bless you all to- 
day, and ultimately save you! 



SAYINGS. 

Dignity is the starch of the shroud. The more 
dignity a fellow has the nearer dead he is. I expect 
to be as dignified as any of you when I get into my 
coffin. 

I can't defy the great God who will try me at the 
last day, any more than I could rush up into the face 
of the great God who in the beginning held a flam- 
ing mass of eternity in his red right-hand, while every 
spark that flew from it made a world. He is the same 
yesterday, to-day, and forever. 

A GOOD plan for a young man proposing to marry 
is to court the whole family, but not to marry but one. 
I want to court my mother-in-law, and father-in-law, 
and my wife's sister, and find out what sort of people 
they are. I want to know what sort of a family I am 
marrying into. There is a heap in that. 

A preacher said to Jones: "At least a hundred 
people in the audience look like they are anxious to 
seek Christ. Why don't you call them up?" "1 
never kill hogs till I get the water hot." "But sup- 
pose you get the water too hot?" "Then it will set 
the hair, and we will just sharpen the knife and shave 
it off." 



SERMON VIII 

The Prodigal Son. 

(To Men Only.) 

" Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thv sight, and 
w a no more worthy to be called thy son." (Luke xv. 21.) 

$j| NEVEE understood the full force of the hymn, 
J]j| "All hail the power of Jesus' name," until I saw 
* its association with a wonderful gathering in 
Edenton, Putnam county, Georgia. I had been 
preaching there for several days; hundreds had been 
converted to God. I believe every adult in the town, 
except twenty-seven, had been converted and joined 
the Church. All the bar-keepers had been converted, 
and had surrendered their business, except one, and 
he went to the county commissioners and proposed to 
cancel his license if they would give him back the 
money he had paid for it. He said: "Give me the 
money I paid you, and to-morrow morning at two 
o'clock my whisky will be loaded and shipped out of 
this town." And the citizens met on the greensward 
about the court-house to free their town from whisky. 
The first song was, "All hail the power of Jesus' 
name." It has done more for temperance than all the 
legislative enactments and all the movements that 
have ever been inaugurated. I would to God that every 
man here to-night would call him his Lord and Mas- 
ter, and live his friend and die his companion, and 
live with him in heaven. He is the best friend a mor- 
tal man «yer had. Let us stand up and sing, "All hail 
the power of Jesus' name." 

(109' 



110 Sekmons and Sayings. 



There are more good women to the square foot in 
this town than in any place I have seen, but I want ev- 
ery woman in this town to love the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and then your town will be well-nigh redeemed. I 
praise God for a good wife and for a good mother. I 
would see every woman* in this town fall in love with 
the Lord Jesus Christ and love him forever. 

Come out to the six o'clock g ervice. Strike a fellow 
before he is full of beef and the devil, and you can 
do something with him. Some fellows are nearly 
hopeless after ten o'clock in the morning. 

Now, brethren, I hope every man present who be- 
lieves that God hears and answers prayer will lift 
his heart in prayer that God may bless every man 
and boy in this company to-night. Will you pray, 
brethren? Pray to God to baptize his word with 
power. I want to get very close to many hearts to- 
night. At Cowan, just this side of the Cumberland 
Mountain, I walked out on the engine, and the en- 
gineer came over on the side of the engine with me. 
He said he had been attending these services, "and 
when you told about Virginia, and about the death of 
several children, especially when you told about Vir- 
ginia, you came mighty close to me then. I want to 
be a good man, and want you to pray for me. I have 
lost children, but I want to be a good father to mv 
children that still live, and to be good to the best wife 
a man ever had." God help me to get mighty close to 
you to-night! I would compass you with as warm u 
heart as ever beat in mortal man. The best preach- 
ing that a man ever heard is the preaching that makes 
you forget that there is any other man on earth, but 
thfi preacher and yourself. Lord Jesus Christ, com** 



SEEMONS AND bAYINGS. Ill 



very close to these men to-night; touch them, and 
may these wearied arms be stretched out, and these 
dying bodies be raised up! Lord Jesus Christ, come 
to-night and stand right by the side of every one of us! 
"And he said, A certain man had two sons; and th© 
younger of them said to his father, Father, give me 
the portion of goods that f alleth to me. And he divided 
unto them his living. - " That boy made a mistake there 
as long as eternity — "Make me as one of thy hired 
servants." If his father had hired him he would 
have been stealing something before Saturday night. 
That boy made a mistake there. "And he arose, and 
came to his father, and said, I am no more worthy 
to be called thy son." But the father, thank God, 
stopped him before he got to that servant business. 
" Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him. And 
bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it. And they 
began to be merry." You recognize this immediately 
as the parable of the Prodigal Son. This one para- 
ble stamps its author as a divine teacher. I like 
Shakespeare; I love to read Shakespeare. It is a 
thing of delight to see how Shakespeare can flash the 
light of his genius into every corner and crevice of 
human nature. Shakespeare can take a man by the 
hand and show him every step down to hell, but he can't 
lead him back again. That is one reason why I do n't 
like Thackeray. He can show human nature in all its 
ugliness, and when he gets through he walks off and 
leaves you looking at it. I don't like that. Christ 
was divine. He could take a man and follow him 
into every downward movement — down, down — that 
would go into the very gates of hell, and take him by 
the hand and lead him back and up, and set him dowv 



112 Sermons and Sayings. 



in heaven and place a crown on his head. I like thai 
Thank God for this parable! I never preached from 
a parable in my life. These parables are perfect in 
themselves, and I shall simply make a running com- 
ment on the parable, and shall try to modernize it — 
not that some one may say Jones coupled things with 
that parable that do n't belong to it. I am not preach- 
ing to you gentlemen of the cloth; I am after these 
boys down here. If you will all pray we shall get hold 
of some of these boys to-night. I will adapt this par- 
able to the present day, so that we may better get hold 
of it. The Lord Jesus Christ is perfectly willing that 
we take his truth and throw all the light that modern 
phraseology and modern things can throw upon it. 

We have to do with one of these two sons. " Father, 
give me the portion of goods that falleth to me." We 
know it is a fact that at that time the elder boy inher- 
ited the estate, and the younger son had no claims on 
the father; but this younger son said, "Give me the 
portion of goods that falleth to me. And [immedi- 
ately] he divided unto them his living." I have heard 
preachers say mighty bad things about this boy; say 
that he was one of the wickedest, most prodigal and 
outrageous boys that was ever reared in that settle- 
ment. If the boy was a rascal the old man was a fool 
to start with; for I tell you that the boy, if he had no 
legal claims on the father, and that father had known 
the boy was wicked and prodigal, he never would have 
turned that property over to him without advice and 
warning. The very face of the parable teaches that 
ths boy was worthy of his father's confidence, and 
worthy of the things he bestowed upon him. I have 
heard preachers say that human beings are corrupt 



Sekmons and Sayings. 113 



and depraved, and that there is nothing good in them. 
I have heard Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian 
preachers say that. I have heard several kinds of 
preachers say that a man was full of running sores 
from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet. 
I do n't believe God would suffer such a race to prop- 
agate upon the earth. This boy was worthy of his 
father's love and his father's goods. I say the very 
face of the parable shows it. And now we say his 
father divided unto them his living — possessions; and 
not many days after that the younger son took all that 
was given him and emigrated — he moved off. Now, 
we may see the way along which he traveled from 
Monday morning till Saturday night. He gets every 
thing in order. We will say his portion consisted of 
camels and sheep, horses, servants, and money. All 
these things must be movable, for he is going off. 
About Saturday night he has every thing in order, 
and on Monday morning that boy drove out with his 
caravan before the old homestead and said, "I am 
going in to tell father and mother good-by." Amid 
the noises of his caravan, the bleating of the sheep, 
the lowing of his cattle, and the neighing of the 
horses, he goes in and takes that father by the hand, 
and walks up to that mother, and she throws around 
him the arms that had compassed him in the in- 
nocence of his childhood. She told him good-by 
with tears in her eyes and with tremor in her voice. 
He leaves his home for the first time, and gives the 
order to his train to move on. He has just turned 
loose from the grip of the best father a boy ever 
had. Off, and on they travel until the sun is nearly 
down behind the western hills, and he drives upor 
S • 



114 Sermons and Sayings. 

an elegant place to camp. They feed the stock, the 
servants are provided for, every thing is arranged, 
and he lies down to rest for the night. As he looks 
np to heaven, the stars sparkling like a swarm of 
golden bees, he says, "This is the first night I ever 
spent away from the old homestead." I have wished 
many a time that that boy had said, " I will go back 
home to-morrow." And, sir, if he had decided to do 
that, and stuck to it, how many heart-aches he wonld 
have avoided! how many days of weariness he would 
have slmnned! Preparations are made the next morn- 
ing to move, and off he drives. At sundown he camps 
again, and the same scene is repeated. I see him lie 
down to sleep again. "I am two days' journey from 
home." I have wished many a time that that boy had 
said, "I will go back in the morning before the provis- 
ions I have brought from home are gone." If he had, 
that boy would have been away from father and mother 
and homestead just three nights. Saturday night he 
pitches his tent to remain until Monday. The Sab- 
bath sun peeped up over the eastern hills and bathed 
the camp in a sea of light. "This is the firbt Sab- 
bath I have been away from home, the home of my 
early days, the home of my boyhood." He had all 
day Sunday to think, and that is a good while. He 
had twelve bright hours, with the light of the sun 
pouring down on him. Memories of days rushed 
upon him, and he had twelve hours of darkness in 
which to think. Some of you have done a sight of 
thinking in the last twenty-four hours, may be. If 
that boy had gotten the consent of his heart to give 
the order next morning, "Eight about, and drive back 
home " the next Sunday would have found him un- 



Sermons and Sayings. 115 

der the roof of the old homestead, back to stay for- 
ever. If he had done that, that boy would have 
shunned ten thousand heart-aches; he would havo 
gone around ten thousand bankruptcies of conscience, 
and saved himself from shame and misery and ruin. 
But on and on he drives. I imagine, at the end of 
the second week, as he is going along, he enters some 
excellent territory. Here is every thing that heart 
could wish. " I believe I will buy a plantation and set- 
tle right here. But if I settle here and start in life it 
will not be more than two weeks before the old man 
and the old woman will be down here suggesting 
things to me. I am going away off yonder and build 
a palatial residence and stock my farm and have ev- 
ery thing in apple-pie order, and go back home and 
show them what I have done." That boy is honest 
in that thing. He finally got into another magnifi- 
cent settlement. "I believe I will buy and settle right 
here. Here is the post-office, though, and I won't be 
here a month until I get a long letter from father giv- 
ing me directions about things. I see a plantation 
here that suits me. The owner is a sort of old fogy. 
If I could only get possession of the lot, I could buy 
out the old man lock, stock, and barrel, and let him 
live with me." And now we see him driving off. He 
is going in style, too, I imagine. The people would 
meet by the road-side and say: " Did you see that mag- 
nificent pageant, and that magnificent young fellow, 
in all the pomposity of his life? I met him in the 
road, and he did n't speak to me at all." The hotel- 
keeper where he stopped overnight said: "I saw he 
was a nice young man, and I told him I wouldn't 
charge him a cent. He gave me to understand thai 



1.16 Sermons and Sayings. 



he was no pauper. He pulled out a great roll of 
money and settled up with me. I am afraid I hurt 
his feelings." I can see a streak of human nature a 
hundred feet thick right along in there. Night after 
night as he goes along he settles his bill. He is lib- 
eral — prodigal, not liberal. On he goes, and on. He 
moves off farther and farther from home; at every turn 
of the wheel, at every step, he was farther from home. 
That was the saddest picture in connection with this 
young man. If he needed money, he could sell a servant 
for several thousand dollars; he could sell camels and 
sheep. At last he got into a far-off country. When he 
got there the first thing he did he bought a tract of four 
thousand acres, built a magnificent residence, and 
rolled in luxury and wealth — like some of you are roll- 
ing in luxury and wealth to-night. You know how it is. 
I would not go and stay all night where some of you are 
spiritually to-night for all the coined gold of the uni- 
verse. I might die; and if I did, I would be an eternal 
bankrupt. 

He "wasted his substance with riotous living." Go 
back and find where we are. Human nature bubbles up 
all along. There is that man sitting out there. You 
know your number ; I will not call your name. There 
you sit. Twenty-five or thirty years ago you stepped 
across the line of accountability. God turned over to 
you the gracious impressions of your youthful days, 
the Sabbath-school lessons, the sympathy of angels, 
the prayers of the Church, and all the spiritual her- 
itage of the immortal soul. God turned it all over to 
you. You are going to strike out on your own hook. 
Now you started out in a straight course; you moved 
off in style; you only drank at the most elegant b,\rs 



Sermons and Sayings. 11" 



in the city; you only kept company with gilded sin 
and sinners. The first thing you knew you forgot 
your Sabbath-school lessons. You threw them aside 
and went on a little farther, and you threw away your 
Bible; and some men here have thrown away the Bi- 
bles given them by their mothers. By and by you 
forgot the little 

Now I lay me down to sleep, 

I pray thee, Lord, my soul to keep, 

that your mother taught you. By and by you scat- 
tered to the winds the recollections of youi poor 
mother. By and by every sermon was cast behind 
you that impressed you in your youthful days. Men 
are here to-night who have wasted their all, spiritually 
speaking, in riotous living. O me, how a fellow does 
move off ! I can tell where a fellow is by the way his 
head is. Says a lady: "I am going to bring my hus- 
band out to-day. I want you to be particular how^\ 
you talk. The last time he went to church the preacher 
said something he didn't like, and he has n't been 
back since." Yes, your feelings are easy to hurt. I 
can set the dogs after you and tree you in a hog-pen 
every time. I know where you started, sir. Your 
feelings! your feelings! Hurt your feelings! Who 
are you, anyhow ? God help me to hurt your feelings / 
so that you will quit your meanness! That is all the * 
harm I wish you. When I first commenced preach- 
ing T was so afraid I would hurt somebody's feelings 
thai I did n't know what to do. I am afraid now 1 
won't hurt your feelings. I have just changed round. 
You know your number; you can keep that in youi 
mind as I go along. You know who I am talking to 
"I do n't want everybody in the church to know that 7 



118 Sermons and Sayings. 



am going to a hog-pen. I am a gentleman, sir, I want 
you to understand that. If I ever get my feelings 
hurt once I am ruined." God pity the poor fellow ( 
who has his feelings stuck out like the porcupine's 
quills! Preacher of righteousness, tell me the truth, \ 
anH save me if you can! That is what we want. I / 
do n't know how one of your sort will take care of his-'' 
feelings when he gets into hell-fire forever. You will 
get your feelings hurt good down there. 

"When he spent all in riotous living he joined him- 
self to a citizen of that country, and he was put to 
tending hogs; and that is the worst business you can 
put a Jew at — tangling him up with a hog, either be- 
fore or after death. He put him into the field to feed 
swine. O what a disreputable job that was for a gen- 
tleman and a Jew — to feed swine! 

And listen: " He would fain have filled his belly with 
the husks that the swine did eat." He fed the hogs on 
husks, and ate husks himself. It is a principle in the 
economy of God that just what you feed other people 
on the devil makes you feed on, and out of the very 
same spoon. Nine bar-keepers out of every ten die 
drunk. That is, just what you feed other people on 
the devil makes, you eat. That is a joke, ain't it? 
You gamble and win other people's money, and the 
first thing you know some other scoundrel has gam- 
bled with you and won every dollar back. You live 
a licentious life, and directly all of its dreadful influ- 
ences will react upon you as a man, and leave you as 
loathsome as the woman you lie down with. There 
is one text I have tried to get my mind on so as to 
preach from it: "With what measure ye meet it shall 
be measured to you again." O sir, there is not a 



Sermons and Sayings. 119 



thing in the word of God that is stronger than that. 
There is not a thing in the universe that touches all 
along the line of life as that does. If yon measure 
oat whisky and make drunkards out of other men's 
boys, it will make drunkards out of your boys. There 
are bar-keepers who are making drunkards out of 
their neighbors' boys, and their boys will die drunk- 
ards. What a thought! There are men who are sell- 
ing liquor and killing themselves with it, and their 
boys are killing themselves with it. God pity the 
man that is killing his neighbor, and standing by and 
seeing his own boy swallow the same fire of damna- 
tion ! 

He would fain have fed on the husks that the swine 
did eat. We people of the Church ought to think 
along on this line. Did you think it possible that any 
of your members are renting out houses for bar-rooms 
and for assignation-houses? Do you reckon your 
boys are up there to-night? Do you know that gam- 
bling-houses rented by that elder are the places where 
that elder's boy goes to play cards? I would run 
from that thing as I would from a pestilence. I saw 
a house in this town, the lower room of which was 
rented for a bar-room, and the upper room is a gam- 
bling-hell, and may be a house of assignation; and it 
belongs to one of the leading Christian men of this 
State. There is mud enough here to muddy your 
life for years to come. A preacher came up to mo 
and said, " I have got members of my church who rent 
bar-rooms." You have just found that out, have you? 
[ found that out before I came here. There is a lit- 
tle old one-horse fellow out in some of these towns, 
and he is trying to shell me out about what T know <.f 



120 Sermons and Sayings. 



this city He says I was never here hi my life. You 
all made a powerful ado about the time I was here be- 
fore, and said I was shooting in the air. I was shoot- 
ing level, and showing up something when I was here 
before. 

Let us mark this expression : " He joined himself to 
a citizen of that country." And he put him to the most 
disreputable work a Jew was ever engaged in. There 
is a lesson in morals for you. You will see it illus- 
trated all over this city. "And when he had spent 
all, there arose a mighty famine in that land. . . . He 
joined himself to a citizen of that country." I feel 
kindly toward you; I feel profoundly interested in 
you. What vestige have you left of the noble im- 
pulses of your precious mother? How can a wicked 
man let memory take hold of a good mother, and go 
on in his career of sin? Some of you have buried 
mother, father, wife, and children, and to-night you 
stand out there like the old blasted oak, with every 
limb decayed, and the old, ruined trunk ready to top- 
ple over and be buried forever. God kelp us to-night! 
You have disposed of your spiritual heritage; your 
mother's precious influence is gone. You have spent 
all in riotous living, and have not a vestige of youi 
spiritual life left. In our own State one of the pre- 
siding elders of our Conference said that he was pass- 
ing near a cross-roads grocery when a man stepped 
out and took his hand, and said to him: "Brother, 
you don't know me; but we graduated in the same 
class, we joined the Church at the same time, and 
now it is twenty years since I saw you." The poor 
fellow was in shabby clothing, and, with trembling 
limbs, he said: "I have had a fearful experience 



Sermons and Sayings. 121 



1 walked into that grocery just now to take a drink. 
I ^as so nervous I could not pour out the liquor. 
The bar -keeper filled my glass. I tried to get it 
to my lips with both my hands, and before I could 
get it to my lips I felt my mother's hand come 
down on my head; and she said, 'Now I lay me 
down to sleep.' I dropped the glass from my hand 
and walked out of the grocery just as you came 
along." "Well, sir, God bless you, your precious old 
mother is following you to the very gates of hell, and 
laid her hand on your head. Will you stop?" He 
went on with his drinking, and was carried out of that 
grocery a corpse. That old mother followed that way- 
ward son to the very edge of hell. Some of us have 
mothers who have been in the good world many years. 
My mother was taken away twenty years ago; but 
she is as much my mother to-night as she ever was. 
She is waiting and watching for my coming. Friends, 
you that have mothers in heaven, and you that still 
have good mothers on earth, let us go back. "And he 
wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he 
had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land." 
When a fellow gets out of every thing, he experiences 
famine. You take that fellow that is morally bank- 
rupt forever, and he is as helpless as if he were dead. 
Poor fellow! All is spent in riotous living. He says: 
" I never needed friends as bad as I need friends now; 
I never needed help as I need help hoav; I never 
needed sympathy as I need sympathy now; I never 
needed divine influences as I need them now. Here 
I am eating the very husks of sin, shut out from every 
good influence in the world." O what a picture! Poor 
fallow! There you are. How ninny men have taken thr 



122 Sermons and Sayings. 



last step that it is essential for any man to take in order 
to be damned forever! How many men — how many 
hundreds of men — who hear my voice to-night have 
taken the last step to be an eternal bankrupt! You 
need not swear another oath, or drink another drop, or 
play another card, or do another licentious act; you 
are steeped in guilt from head to foot, and on your 
way to hell. You need no more momentum. With 
your present momentum you will roll into ruin for- 
ever! 

When he had wasted all in riotous living, "there 
arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to 
be in want." How many men who hear my voice to- 
night really want sympathy ? " Nobody to sympathize 
with me." A poor fellow came to me one night and 
said : " I do n't believe that among the fourteen hundred 
million people of the earth there is one who sympa- 
thizes with me." I said: "Get down on your knees; 
here is one that gives you his sympathy." He not only 
found the sympathy of a man, but of the great heart 
of Christ. I am after these poor fellows who think 
nobody sympathizes with them. If you will take the 
right step, there are ten thousand hearts that are in 
■sympathy with you. When he had realized his con- 
dition — we will take the words as we find them here 

- " When he came to himself." I have thought about 
that expression many a time. What was the matter 
with that boy that he wanted to leave home? Was 
not every desire ministered unto? What got into that 
hoy's head that he wanted to go away from home? 
"When he came 'to himself." What was the matter 
with that fellow? Was he crazy? Was he wild? 

The book says, "When he came to himself." Let 



Sekmons and Sayings. 123 



me announce the fact as deep as the ocean of God's 
truth: Kvery sinner in this land is mad — is crazy. 
Tell me I would have done as I did for twenty-five 
yeara if I had not been crazy! When I opened my 
eye& *nd saw where I was, O I tell you I made tracks; 
and if I can get your eyes open to-night, yoa wiJJ 
emigrate too! You will get away from there. O for 
power from on high, that men may realize what they 
<«"e and where they are this night! "When he came 
to himself." I never knew what I was until the light 
flashed on me, and I was at my father's death-bed. 
I saw m yself in all my eternal ruin, all my downward 
tendencies; and all at once I slapped on every brake 
on every wheel, and stopped forever. You won't go 
any farther if we can get you to come to yourself; 
we will wake you up for good. 

"And when he came to himself." Let us stop about 
a minute. "Who am I? What am I? What am I 
doing? Where am I going? I am behind the counter 
of a bar. I have sold many a drink." Yes; and you 
have got to meet this when there is no counter between 
you and the judgment; no demijohns, and no ten- 
cent pieces scattered around. You are just on a level 
with that house. Her house is on the way to death, 
going down to hell with the wicked of earth. "Where 
am I? I am where ten months' drinking will put me 
in my grave. I am just ten months from a drunk 
ard's death, a drunkard's grave, and a drunkard's 
hell." What a thought! Where are we, brethren in 
the Church of God? Let us come to ourselves to- 
night, and each of us ask, "What is my life before 
God and man? What is my influence before the 
town?" We wil]' never bring the young people of 



124 Sermons and Sayings. 



this cifcy to Christ until we can get yon old men to 
quit leading them to death and hell. Brethren, let 
us wake up to the fact that we are pilgrims in this 
world. For one, I lay aside every weight.. I lay 
them all aside. If my money is in the way, I lay it 
aside; if my shoes, off with them; if my hat, off with 
that. If I have to run into heaven shoeless, hatless, 
coatless, I am going there! That is the grace that 
will win. Brethren, let us stand up in our manhood 
to-night. Let us say: "Let others do as they will, we 
will hold up the banner of the cross; we will live and 
die for Christ, and be an example to all young men." 
If you are a member of the Church of Christ, and 
have been selling whisky, say, by the grace of God, 
you have sold your last drop. God will have the an- 
gels staying all night with you. if you say that. They 
will fan you to sleep with the movement of their 
wings. Say, "I have quit." That is what is wanted, 
brethren. A whole lot of you fellows in this city 
are going to quit a whole lot of things, but you are 
the slowest crowd I ever saw. It is a good thing the 
Lord is long-suffering, or he would cut you off before 
Sunday night. We had a common knocking bar- 
keeper who had no sense. He was converted, and went 
home and knocked the heads out of all of his barrels 
of whisky. He waked up next morning and said: 
" Well, now, I owe six hundred dollars for that whis- 
ky." He put on his thinking-cap, and that fall he 
'knocked for admission into our Conference. He waa 
put on a five-hundred-dollar circuit. It took that fel- 
low four years to pay that whisky bill. His wife 
went in rags, and I have seen that fellow when I was 
ashamed of him; but now he is pastor of one of th* 



Sermons and Sayings. 125 



finest churches in California. "Where is Brother 
Christian?" "At Sacramento; pastor of the leading 
church in that city." I tell you, you do n't know 
what you will find at the bottom of a whisky-barrel 
if you will go there right. My Lord, if I could just 
make this old Cumberland River stink with whisky 
for fifty miles for three weeks, I would shout all the 
way home! 

When he had spent all in riotous living, he came 
to himself. "I am not right; I see I am not right." 
And, brethren, any man who realizes that he is not 
right has come to himself. " When he came to him- 
self," the first thing that impressed him was this: 
"There is enough and to spare, and I am perishing; 
I will arise and go to my father." " But you have no 
shoes, no hat." "I will go bareheaded, shoeless, and 
in my shirt-sleeves." "You have no money." "I 
will beg my way." Here is a boy that means some- 
thing. When he starts back he is quite a different 
fellow from what he was coming. W^hen he came, he 
fared like a prince; now he pulls up a pile of leaves 
and lies down in it. He learned that from the hogs. 
He passes the cabin of an old negro, and says: "Un- 
cle, I wish you would give me a pone of bread; I have 
no money, but my father has plenty, and if you ever 
pass my father's house, why, he will never forget you 
for your kindness to me." " Did you see that fellow 
go up the road? I looked at the features of his face- 
he reminded me of that fellow who went down in such 
style. Yes, I thought he was the same; he looked 
like a fellow who had been on a big spree." If a boy 
should drive along in a cart and would let him ride, 
he would be the gladdest fellow you ever saw. Cer 



126 Sermons and Sayings. 



tain men in this town have said on that sidewalk, whe* 
a man came along, "Who is that?" "O that is So 
and So, a son of Major or Mr. So and So." "John 
So and So. What? why John So and So — why, I 
knew him jnst when he got ont of college. You 
do n't tell me that is him?" "The same." "He does n't 
look like it. Look at his face bloated; he ain't got 
decent clothes. He looks like the debauched imp oi 
the devil!" That is the fellow who started with the 
finest prospects. Yon won't know a fellow when the 
devil gets through with him. How many just such 
cases as that are scattered over this broad land to- 
night! He has gone off in sin until his best friends 
do n't know him. When that boy got upon his feet 
and shook himself, and looked around and came to 
himself, he said, "I will arise and go to my father;" 
and that little word had steam enough to run him 
back to the old homestead. 

Brethren, we must get our theology down to these 
two propositions: God can't make a good man bad; 
the devil can't make a bad man good. The devil wants 
all to be bad; God wants all to be good. If you want 
to do good, God will help you; if you want to do bad, 
the devil will help you. Now, what are you going to 
do? You are waiting for the Lord to go out there 
and gather you up by the hair of your head and drag 
you into heaven. You will wait a million years. Lei 
me look you in the face and tell you if you will 
stand up and say, " I will arise and go to my father/* 
the next we hear of you you will be in heaven. It 
is ten thousand times harder to take the first step 
than to take all the other steps to put you into the 
kingdom of heaven. Every man in this tent is wher* 



Sermons and Sayings. 127 



the lawyer was when Christ said to him, "You are 
not far from the kingdom of God." You are right 
where you can put your hand on eternal life now, if 
you will stretch it out. If all the rest of human- 
ity go on the broad road to hell, I will go to heaven 
or die. If we never meet again here, let us meet up 
yonder in heaven. God does not say, " Whosoever is 
happy, feels, or shouts," he will get through; but 
"whosoever will." It is a question of will, not of 
feeling. "I will" — and that boy started on that long 
journey on that one proposal. Some of us have 
nothing but will; it is all our stock in trade — but, 
thank God, that is capital enough. It is, " I will arise 
and go to my father." Just take that boy where he 
has gone down to. There is not a man here but what 
can come back. Now, on this proposition he started, 
and on and on he went, farther and farther toward 
home — and, thank God, when a man is headed right 
every step he takes he is nearer home! — until now at 
last I see him go up in front of the old homestead. 
I know he was glad when his eyes looked down on 
the old home again. He got up under the old oak 
where he had played marbles many a time, and looked 
at his home and said: "It is enough; I cannot go any 
farther." But the father is looking out. His fathei 
saw him a great way off, and those were eyes of mercy 
that saw* him; they looked upon him in compassion 
a ad love. Those arms were arms of mercy that clasped 
that boy. He spoke, and they were words of mercy. ~"\ 
The poor prodigal said: "Father, I am no more wor 
thy to be called thy son." His father put his ham] 
over his mouth, and would not let him say the rest 
Th ,t« is something in this parable for my poor sou) 



128 Sermons and Sayings. 



I recollect searching, seeking, praying, and hoping to 
get myself better. I was moving in the right direc- 
tion, and the time came when I broke down with a 
sense of my unworthiness. My father's eyes saw me, 
and they were eyes of mercy; his arms supported me, 
and they were arms of mercy; his voice spoke to me, 
and it was filled with mercy. It is all there — all my 
history. I was perishing, but one day I got back to 
God. The first night I slept under the roof of the 
old homestead, all scarred and tired and worn out 
the rest was akin to heaven. Thank God for every 
night I have spent under the roof of the old home- 
stead! I am going to take my last meal in the old 
homestead. I am going to die in the old home- 
stead. Will you come home? Will you come home? 
Thank God, there is room enough in that old home- 
stead-building to shelter us all forever! That room 
is waiting for you. Will you come to take it to-night? 
Lord God, help these men to start home! Every mo 
ment from this time on shall find me headed toward 
the old homestead. Thank God, I started back ! Thank 
God, I was welcomed back! Thank God, I have been 
treated like a son ever since I came back! Thank 
God, I am a son of the Great Father — of a King. O 
me, that awful life of sin! When memory goes back, 
I am sorry for it; then all clears up. Thank God for 
that time when the Great Shepherd found me a lost 
sheep! I think I could not have gone much farther, 
or the wild beasts would have gotten me. He laid me 
upon his shoulder and brought me back, a poor tired 
sheep, into the fold. God bless you all, my friends, 
and bring you to the old homestead to-night! Before 
we smg, let me say I am honest and earnest about 



Sermons and Sayings. 129 



this. I have tried to get this subject squarely before 
you. I want every man who desires to get back home 
to-night to come to these front blocks of seats. Let 
as find God to-night. Now we are going to stand and 
sing, and let all of you who are truly penitent to- 
night take seats on these front benches. I want every 
man here who wants to give himself to God. Now, 
let us settle this to-night, and make this a happy night 
to everybody here. If you don't wish to remain a 
penitent, I do n't want any of you to go away, but 
give us these front seats. Now, stand and sing. 



SAYINGS. 

Come out to the six-o'clock service in the morning. 
If we can strike a fellow of a morning, before he gets 
full of beef and the devil, we can do something with 
him. Some fellows are nearly hopeless after ten 
o'clock in the morning. 

There are more good women to the square foot in 
this city than I ever saw anywhere; but I want every 
woman in this city to fall in love with the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and then your town will be well-nigh redeemed. 
I praise God for a good wife and a good mother! 

When I started out preaching I was so much afraid 
I would hurt somebody's feelings I did not know what 
to do; and now I am so much afraid that I won't hurt 
somebody's feelings I do n't know what to do. God 
pity the poor fellow who has his feelings stuck out 
like porcupine quills ! I do n't know how one of your 
sort will take care of his feelings when he gets into 
hell-fire. Preacher of righteousness, tell me the truth, 
and save me if you can. 
9 



SERMON IX. 

Waiting and Hoping. 

"And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee." (IV 
xxpx, 7.) 

HERE are quite a number of requests on my 
table. I wish you could run over them and see 
them. I wish you could see between the lines 
of these requests. I wish you all who are not Chris- 
tians could read this letter: "O sir, to break a wife's 
heart on my way to hell, to break a mother's heart on 
my way to hell! God have mercy on us men, and let 
us think about wife and her tears and prayers." . I 
know, in all my life as a preacher, I have never seen 
so many earnest wives, who say: "O sir, don't forget 
my husband; make him a special object of prayer! 
If my husband slips through this chance of grace he 
will never be saved." As a husband of a good wife, I 
never paid the debt I owed my wife for all my wicked 
years until I paid it at the cross of Jesus. Others 
may be and do as they will, but by the grace of God 
I will be a better man. 

Now, brethren, let us pray God to-night to baptize 
his word so that it may be a light to those in dark 
places. There are a thousand persons here to-night 
•who would like to know the way to God, who long for 
and aspire to a better life. Now, you pray as Chris- 
tians while I talk. We invite your attention to th^se 
words of the psalmist: "What wait I for? my Lope 
is in thee." Here is a question and a statement j 
(130) 



Sermons and Sayings. 131 



want every one of you to transfer that question from 
the utterance of David in this book to your own heart. 
Let us give our hearts a chance to-night. A man 
does n't go head foremost toward God, he goes heart 
foremost. The great trouble with sinners is that they 
put the head before the heart. "What wait I for?" 
We see that most of these questions in the book 
are preeminently personal — "What must I do to be 
saved ? " " What wait I f or ? " Personal in the high- 
est and most important sense. Now, we will go down 
on your side and look at it a moment. When a man 
says, "I tell you what I am waiting for — I am wait- 
ing for the Lord's good time, the Lord's own time," 
is that a fact? Well, that good time has come at last. 
You can't say that any longer. I am so glad that what 
you have been waiting for until you are gray-headed 
has come at last. That time was the day when you 
were five years old, when you were five years and one 
day old, and every breathing day of your life since. 
Your mother kissed you as a little child up to this 
hour. These revival services are to get men willing 
to be saved, and not to get God willing to save them. 
You understand that. It is God's accepted time. 
Listen: "Now is the accepted time; now is the day of 
salvation." Every moment that you are a sinner that 
is the moment God is ready to save you. Thus much 
I tell you: You will never see the gates wider open 
than they are now. You may get in after awhile when 
they are partially closed; but if you don't go in now 
the chances are against you. In hell you will carry 
the recollection that you stood once in this city right 
before the open gates of God's mercy and grace and 
wou Id not enter. 



132 Sermons and Sayings. 



" I am waiting for God's good time to save sinners." 
I want to say a thing or two to you men about waiting. 
I said to a man in Knoxville who was a moral, upright 
fellow — you have not many of that kind in this city 
— " Brother, do you know you are the hardest case in 
Knoxville? " " Why, no, sir," he said; "I am not the 
hardest case." "Well, we got the hardest case in the 
city — a gambler — and we have not got you yet." We 
have got some of the hardest cases in this city up to 
this time. Did you know that you are a harder case? 
We have them, and we have not got you. Waiting 
God's good time! Let me say to you to-night, with 
my Bible in my hand, and with love toward you in my 
heart, that time has come at last in all its fullness and 
power. Says one: "I am not waiting for God's time, 
I am waiting for better terms." Let me tell you about 
that terms business. Down in Georgia in some of our 
counties they have a stock law. No fences at all down 
there. All the county is thrown into one field. I 
want no fences in farming and politics, but in religion 
I want the devil's goats fenced out. I will not let the 
fences down for you, but I will help you over them. 
There are plenty of people that want to go to heaven 
on their own schedule. They want to drink a little, lie 
a little, and gamble occasionally. Everybody in this 
country has an old aching tooth, and the first dentist 
tli at won't hurt them they are going to have to pull it 
out. I have been hunting a painless dentist for a long 
time, but they do n't live in this country. They might 
fill you with laughing-gas and pull your head off. A 
great many people object to pointed preaching be- 
cause it pains them, they say. This suggests the 
story of the old lady whose daughter's tooth ached 



Sermons and Sayings. 133 



She sent for a dentist. He came, and pulled out 
a pair of big old-fashioned forceps. The old lady- 
screamed out, " Do n't put them things in my daugh- 
ter's mouth; pull it with your fingers!" That would 
be mighty nice, if it could be done. God bless you 
all! if you will let me get the old gospel forceps hold 
of these teeth, I will bring them out; but I cannot 
pull them with my fingers. I want that understood. 
Brethren, some of you have been trying the finger 
business. But hear me, hear me! Better terms, bet- 
ter terms! Do you know the terms on which God will 
take hold of you and carry you through this world 
and safely up to heaven? You just lay down those 
things that are hurting you and take up those other 
things that will help you, and you will have his help 
in time and in eternity. Why will a man ask any bet- 
ter terms than that he quit those things that damage 
him on earth and in heaven? I am so glad that God 
would not let me go on and drink. I would have been 
in a drunkard's grave years ago; I would have been 
ruined if he had. You brought it in with you. Yes, 
out you did not get in. Many a fellow is out in the 
goat-yard, and thinks he is in the house. It is dis- 
gusting to have an elder rear back on his dignity and 
defend his drinking. You old demijohn, you! All 
you lack of being a demijohn is a few willows. He 
is an elder and deacon too. His wife has to run her 
arm into the handle of a demijohn when she goes to 
church. How many demijohns have you, Brother 
Witherspoon? How many have you, Brother Strick- 
land? Hear me to-night! never, never do I want God 
to lower the .standard. I am so glad that he holds up 
the standard that we must live righteous and godly 



)M Sermons and Sayings. 



lives in this world. Bless God, when I have climbed 
the steepest hills what a view I have! I would not 
have the standard lowered for my wife and for my 
children. I have faltered many a time, and said I 
could not pull another foot. The Lord came down 
and backed my shoulders and said, " Go on." When 
I shall stand on the mount of God forever I will say, 
"Thank God this old heaven is as high as it is!" 
There is no sickness, sorrow, pain, disease, or death 
in heaven. We won't let the standard down, but we 
will go up to it. There is something very precious about 
the cross. When a man gets squarely under it, deny- 
ing himself and bearing his burdens, and falls under 
the load, God will pull him up on the cross and make 
it tote him. No, sir; we won't let down the standard. 
Blessed be God, we will keep it up ! Here is light and 
love and purity and salvation to make you fit and meet 
for God's use in heaven and the companionship of an- 
gels by and by. I never want to see the day in the 
history of the cross when a man can be saved on any 
lower plane than that he quits his meanness and goes 
;o doing right. 

"I am not waiting for any better terms," says the 
sinner; "I know that right is right and wrong is 
wrong. I am waiting for the Church to get right." 
You will be in hell a million years before that hap- 
pens. Mark what I tell you. Look here, a man is in 
mighty poor business hagging around at these mem« 
bers of the Church. They are good-hearted fellows. 
They go off into devilment, but if you check them up 
they will come back. There are many members on 
the road to-night — coming back. They did not know- 
how low down they were. There are hundreds of 



Sermons and Sayings. 135 



these men — Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians 
—in all the churches in this town. You will never 
see them doing as they have been doing. You try 
next year to run a bar-room, and want these men to 
help you, and you will get a fuss on your hands. We 
are going to do better, and we call on men and angels 
to witness what we say. We preachers are going to 
do better, and I am so glad that the best of us can do 
better. The good women are going to be better; and 
God help the mothers to be all that mothers ought to 
be, and the wives to be all that wives ought to be! 
You men of this city are going to have better wives. 
I want every wife who will say, "My husband shall 
have a more consecrated wife," to stand up. I want 
every mother who says, " God helping me, I will be a 
better mother," to stand up. You who are as good as 
you are going to be, keep your seats. Will you mem- 
bers of the Church, both male and female, who will 
say, "God helping me, I am going to do better," stand 
up? You old sinners are going to. feel mighty lone- 
some about this time. You are kind-hearted men, 
but the devil has had you off juggling with you. Let 
us quit him now. I tell you what tickles me : to see ■"" 
an old sinner come in and pull out an old lame, 
dwarfed member of the Church, and lay him down 
and measure by him. "Look here, boys; I am as 
long and broad and good as this member of the 
Church!" I would die, if I was a decent man, to lay 
myself down by the side of such a man. Why do n't 
you go and pick out one of these grand old Christians? 
You would look like a rat-terrier lying by the side of 
an elephant. You quit measuring by these dwarfs, 
We got them from you, and you can have them back 



130 Sermons and Sayings. 



Waiting for the Church to get right! Let the Church 
do and be as it will, I am going to so live that rny life 
will be consecrated to God. Do n't stay out because 
of the hypocrites; but come in, and help crowd them 
out. A fellow says he can't live with these trifling 
Church-members. Is it not better to come in and live 
with them and go to heaven than to go to hell living 
without them? That is a heap worse, ain't it? Wait- 
ing for the Church to get right! In all my experience, 
I never saw churches respond as readily as they do 
here. They are about as near right as you will ever 
see them. 

"I am waiting for feeling," says some fellow. You 
look at me. You are an honest, sensible citizen of 
this town. What are your feelings? What do you 
mean by feeling? Do you mean serious thought? If 
you don't mean that, you don't mean any thing. If 
serious thought is not feeling, there is no serioua 
thought in repentance. If serious thought is not re- 
pentance, there is no feeling in religion. I recollect 
once I went down into the congregation- and said to an 
old sinner, " Come up, and give your heart to God.' 
He said: "Mr. Jones, I have not got a bit of feeling.' 
And he could hardly stand on his feet, he had so much. 
When a man sees he ought to do right and quit the 
wrong, that is the only feeling there is on the subject 
Do you think that you ought to be a Christian, and 
ought to start to-night? If you do, you have got feel- 
ing enough to sweep you right under the cross, if you 
will start now. 

Another fellow says: "I am not waiting for feeling; 
1 am waiting until I am fit." Yes, you take the most 
intelligent lawyer out of Christ in this town and tlin 



Seemons and Sayings. 137 



most ignorant darky, and say to the darky: "Tom, do 
you belong to the Church?" "No, sah; 'cause I ain't 
fitten." Then you meet the lawyer and ask the same 
question, and he will reply: "Why, I am not fit, sir, 
to be a member of the Church. 1 ' Is it not astonish- 
ing that they meet on precisely the same ground? " I 
am waiting till I am fit." I tell you, brethren, when 
you analyze that thing in the light of the gospel, it is 
the most ridiculous position a man can put himself 
in. Here is a fellow starving to death; there is a 
richly-loaded table. "Are you hungry?" "Yes, I 
am just as hungry as I can be; but I can't go; my 
hands ain't fitten." "Here are soap and water and 
towels." He says, "I ain't fitten to wash." Come up 
and join the Church. Do n't "hang back because "I 
am not fitten." Come up here and get fitten. He 
says, "I ain't fitten to get fitten." What are you go- 
ing to do with that sort of man ? Let me tell you, 
my congregation, that the very fact that you don't 
feel fit is the very thing that commends you to God. 
Jesus Christ came into the world to save good people ? 

no; but to save sinners. If you are a sinner you 
are a man; now, understand that. I have had such a 
sense of unworthiness from the day I started until 
this hour. It grows with me. I never have felt 
worthy of membership in the Church of Jesus Christ. 

1 started well; but I am climbing still. I am ascend- 
ing all the time. If you wait till you are worthy to 
join the Church, you will wait until millions of years 
shall have rolled away. 

"I know Christ died to save me, but I am waiting 
to try myself awhile." I have seen many a fellow 
come up and resolve to be a good man. "I ain't goinf! 



138 Sermons and Sayings. 



to do any tiling, but I am going to try myself." The 
devil does n't want any better joke on a fellow than to 
get him out trying himself. A great big lump of 
drunk trying to walk a straight line! Watch him! 
" I will walk her. I want to see if I can hold out." 
That is just like a fellow saying, " I am going to sit 
out under this tree to see if I can't go to town sitting 
here." Trying himself! I tell you, I like to see a man 
just walk up and get his ticket, jump on the train 
and move off. That 's the sort ! The difficulty witn 
some of us is, we buy our tickets to way-stations and 
never get through. Coming through from Atlanta I 
noticed when the conductor came around and took the 
tickets he gave checks, and put marks on the checks. 
These were white checks. He gave some red checks. 
I noticed that these red-checked fellows came through 
to Chattanooga, and the other fellows got off at the 
different way-places. Many a fellow buys his ticket 
to conviction; he will land off right there. Another 
fellow will buy his ticket up to the penitent's altar; 
another will go as far as Church-membership, and he 
will get off there; another fellow will buy to obedi- 
ence; and another up to family prayer, or the station 
just this side of that. Hundreds of them have not 
gone up that high yet, but buy to the little station just 
this side of family prayer. They will be put off at 
that little flag-station in a swamp, and no hotel for a 
tnan to stop at, and the whole region infested with 
mosquitoes. All of you who have gone that far know 
that that family-prayer town is a delightful place. 1 
am glad I have got my wife and children off at that 
town. Let us get a limited ticket clear through to 
the next world, have our baggage checked through, 



Sekmons and Sayings. 13$ 



and into heaven we will ride. Do n't trouble yourself 
about the destination. Stick to the train, and you 
will land in heaven. Don't act like the fellow that 
said: "I want to go to Chattanooga, but I am afraid 
I can't get through." "This is the train; we are go- 
ing that way now." "I wouldn't miss it for all the 
world," said the fellow as the train pulled out. " Keep 
your seat," said the conductor, "and we 11 take you to 
Chattanooga." About Stevenson he said: "I am so 
much afraid we won't get to Chattanooga." "Keep 
your seat," repeated the conductor. At Bridgeport he 
said: "I am troubled a good deal about getting to 
Chattanooga." " Keep your seat ! " As the signal blew 
for Chattanooga he said: "I am afraid I will miss it." 
" Keep your seat! " As the train rolled under the lit- 
tle car-shed, again he expressed his fear of missing 
Chattanooga. "Keep your seat a few moments more." 
That old Church-member says : " I have so many dark 
days. I do want to get to heaven." Keep your seat; 
this train goes through. If you want to get to the 
good world, get on God's old excursion-train, and you 
will run in under the old car-shed of heaven. Some 
of you will have children there to take hold of your 
hand and welcome you to the city of God. We will 
get there, thank God! Sister, keep your seat; it will 
go through. Brother, keep your head in at the win- 
dow; the train is in safe hands. I have quit troubling 
myself; I have turned it all over to God. 

"I am waiting for faith." Yes; you have been 
waiting forty years for faith. How much have you 
saved up? Like the fellow who had ten bushels 
of wheat, and was waiting till more grew before he 
would sow what he had! Sow it, and \ou will havf* 



14£ Sermons and Sayings. 



a hundred-fold. By keeping it, you will not get anj 
more, but the rats will eat up what you have. "I 
want to be a blacksmith as soon as I get muscle." 
Why don't you go at it? There he stands until at 
last he has not muscle enough to lift the hammer. 
He is getting it with a vengeance. How did you get 
faith ? by using what you had ? I tell you what tickles 
me — to hear a fellow down praying for faith. "Lord, 
give me faith." The next time you get any in that 
way, bring it over and let me see it. That ain't script- 
ural, that talk you are doing now. Christ rebuked 
those who prayed for faith. The trouble with you 
is not that you need more faith, but you use the 
faith you have, and then you will get more. I would 
as soon pray for sweet potatoes as for faith. Let me 
tell you, my congregation, there is not a man in this 
tent who has not got faith enough ultimately to save 
his soul if he will use what he has; and the way to 
get more is to use what you have. I do n't know how 
this idea fits theology. Does it suit theology ? You, 
my brethren, may take care of theology, and 1 will 
take care of these sinners and the Bible. Do n't you 
let theology get hurt! If you do, we are all gone! 
Lord, Lord, help me to use the faith I have, and then 
I know that it will increase. Have you got faith 
enough to believe that there is a better life? I tell 
you that is just about enough to start with. You be- 
lieve you are wrong, and you believe you ought to get 
right. It will not be a week until you believe some oth- 
er things that are mighty grand. "I am not waiting 
for faith," says another; "that ain't my trouble; nor 
waiting for salvation, nor better terms, for I know I 
have enough to start with." What then? waiting to) 



Sermons and Sayings. 141 



the Church to get right? "No; I believe any Church- 
member is better than I am." If a fellow can get a 
good look at himself it will cure him of his conceit, 
and he can be a first-class member. I have taken in 
a few of your sort. They are of no more account 
than the others. It will be about all you can do to 
keep up with the rear rank. Now, mark what I tell 
you: this is the human side in all its fullness. Now, 
let us look at the other side a moment. " My hope is 
m God." Now you have struck the key-note on which 
we believe for eternal life. My hope is not in my 
friends, for the day may come when my friends will 
turn their backs upon me; nor in riches, for riches 
may take to themselves wings and fly away. My 
hope is not in my pastor; the day may come when he 
will spurn me from his presence. My hope is not in 
the Church ; for the time might come when she would 
turn me out. My hope is not in my father and moth- 
er; if it was, my hope would be gone, for father and 
mother are both gone from me forever. My hope is 
not in my wife, with all her fondness and love for me; 
and the day will come — but may I never live to see it! 
— when she shall be buried under the sod for all time. 
I am so glad it does n't say, " Our hope is in our chil- 
dren;" for we might bury them forever. My hope, 
my friends, is not in riches, pastor, friends, father and 
mother, children, Church; but my hope is in God. 
Will you start to-night? You may say, "I am mighty 
weak." I know it; but your hope is in God. "Yes; 
but I am a poor sinner." My hope is in God; it is 
not; in myself. I know I am a sinner. Yes; but you 
are very, very weak; you are as frail as a bruised 
reed. Yes; but my hope is in God. You have got 



142 Sermons and Sayings 



an appetite that will crush you in a week. My hope 
is in God, and he is stronger than appetite. The man 
is just as strong as the thing he commits himself to, 
and no stronger. If you commit yourself to a little 
box in the Atlantic, you and the box will go down to- 
gether. If you get on a grand ocean-steamer, then 
all the comfort and strength and safety of the steamer 
are yours. If I commit myself to myself, then I am 
no stronger than this arm of flesh. If I commit my- 
self to God, I will never go down; I will stay up as 
long as God stays up. I put my hand in the hand 
of God, and commit it all to him to-night. Won't you 
do it? Let me tell you, God will hear a man pray from 
any point, and answer him. A child will put its hand 
on the place where it hurts, and cry. If you want to 
get to heaven, put your hand on that desire and pray. 
If you want to be saved from sin, put your hand on 
that desire and pray God, and he will save you. If 
you are ready to say, "O God, I want to be a good 
man!" lay your hand on that desire, and God will 
hear you. Yes; have hope in God, and all the trials, 
temptations, dark days, heavy hearts, and all that sort 
of thing, will disappear. I have not a word to say 
in palliation. This journey we are on ends well. I 
never think much about the road, but much about 
where I am going. Those people whose friends moved 
out West went to the post-office daily looking for let- 
ters. They wanted to hear about Texas. The letters 
said that Texas had the most fertle soil and the most 
magnificent climate you ever saw. They spoke in 
such glowing terms of that great Western country. 
Every letter had a postscript: "There are grave-yards 
and coffins and sick-bods and death out here." And 



Sermons and Savings. 143 

then I said: "The Bible tells me of a country where 
there is no more sickness, sorrow, pain, or death for- 
ever and ever." I want to get to that country where 
I shall never see my wife's cheek pale any more; I 
want to see eternal health on the face of my wife and 
hildren. I have made a start on that journey, and 
am going on. God help you men to-night! God help 
me to-night! Whatever other men may do, I start to- 
night. The train is here; the bell is ringing to start; 
I step aboard, and move out for the good world to- 
night. Will you go? There are five hundred per- 
sons here to-night whom I want to see on these front 
pews. Some of you are already on them. It is a 
quarter past eight o'clock. We have plenty of time 
here to-night. I want to see every man who has no 
religion here to-night; I want to take your hand, and 
help you to start to heaven. 



SAYINGS. 

Many a man imagines that he has got religion, when 
it 's only liver-complaint. 

It is awful for a Jew to be tangled up with a hog, 
either before or after death. Awful! 

I want no fences in farming and politics, but in re- 
ligion I want the devil's goats fenced out. I will not 
let the fences down for you, but I will help you over 
them. 

You, my brethren, may take care of theology, and 1 
will take care of these sinners. Do n't you let theol- 
ogy get hurt! If you do, we aie all gone! Lord 
Lord, help me to save these sinners! 



J 44 Sermons and Sayings. 



God bores through the top of a man's head to his 
heart, and then on down to his pocket. He has never 
got down to your pocket yet! 

The devil does n't want any better joke on a fellow 
than to get him out trying himself. A great big lump 
of drunken humanity trying to walk a straight line! 
Trying himself! I tell you, I like to see a man just 
walk up, get his ticket, jump on the train, and move 
off. That's the sort. 

It tickles me to see an old sinner come in and pull 
out an old lame and dwarfed member of the Church, 
lay him down and measure by him, and say: "Look 
here, boys, I am as long, as broad, and as good as this 
member of the Church!" Why don't you go and 
pick out one of those grand old Christians? Be- 
cause you would look like a rat-terrier lying by an 
elephant 



SERMON X. 
Righteousness and Life — Sin and Death, 

"As righteousness tendeth to life, so he that pursueth evil pur* 
sueth it to his own death." (Prov. xi. 19.) 

%i ASK my brethren in the ministry to pray for me 
Tjj[ as they would have me pray for them. O what a 
* responsibility! How my soul shudders! I ask 
every Christian man and woman here to pray for 
God's power to rest upon me. Almighty God of 
heaven and earth, make bare thy mighty arm here to- 
night, that every soul may be touched and every con- 
science aroused! Let every breath be a prayer, and 
God will come down into our midst and own and bless 
his word. 

We have selected for the text to-night the nine- 
teenth verse of the eleventh chapter of the book of 
Proverbs: "As righteousness tendeth to life, so he 
that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death." 
When a good man dies he not only goes to heaven by 
the approval of God and angels — he is not only drawn 
thither by the natural force of spiritual gravity — but 
v hen a good man dies he goes to heaven by the com- 
mon consent of every other man in the world. When 
a bad man dies he not only gravitates hellward by the 
natural force of spiritual gravity, not only does he go 
there by the approval of God and angels, but he goes 
to hell by the common consent of every intelligent 
man in the world. Did you ever attend the funeral 
of a good man? and have you heard the minister of 
10 (145) 



146 Seemons and Sayings. 



God say this: "The spirit of our brother has g^n6 
home to live with God?" Have you heard the com- 
ments of saints and sinners alike? They will all say 
the preacher told the truth — that the good man has 
gone to God. Have you listened to the comments on 
the street-corners, to the comments even of the doubt- 
ful characters on the sidewalk: "This man's body is 
here, but his spirit has gone home to God." Have 
you heard the words of the Church-member as you 
left the church: "That man is now in heaven." We 
all feel it — we all know it! We say that when a bad 
man dies he goes to hell by the common consent of 
every man in the universe; when a good man dies he 
goes to heaven as naturally as this book would drop 
to the floor if I should turn it loose. When a bad man 
dies he goes to hell just as certainly as the book would 
drop if I should turn it loose. Hell is the center of 
gravity for wickedness; heaven is the center of gravity 
for righteousness. This is the lineage of salvation, 
and the lineage of damnation. Who are these that 
go to heaven? "These are they that have come up 
through much tribulation, and have washed their robe3 
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." 
"The wicked shall be driven away into everlasting 
punishment." "As righteousness tendeth to life, so 
he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death." 
" The path of the just shineth more and more unto the 
perfect day." "Having promise of the life that no^v 
is and of that which is to come." The pathway of the 
just is like the pathway of the sun, higher and brighter 
as it rises until it shall reach the zenith on the shoul- 
ders of God. The wicked and deceitful man shall not 
live out half his days. Sin kills body and soul fo? 



Sermons and Sayings. 14? 



both worlds. When I look at the pale wreck of a man, 
I say: "My Lord, sin has ruined that man!" When I 
see a poor degraded woman, I know that sin has ruined 
that woman. Whether the Bible is true or not, we 
know that sin will ruin men. I was once summoned 
two miles from my home. The wife and six children 
met me at the door with tears running from their eyes. 
I asked, "What is doing this?" The wife took me by 
the hand and led me into the house, and there was a 
poor, drunken, besotted husband lying on the bed. I 
said: "My God, sin is ruining this family!" Sin will 
ruin men. I just point you to those cases who de- 
bauch themselves day and night in your own commu- 
nity to prove that sin ruins individuals, cities, States, 
and worlds. O sin, how thou hast ruined our lives! 
"As righteousness tendeth to life." As "godliness is 
profitable unto all things, having promise of the life 
that now is and of that which is to come," so also is 
righteousness. 

" He that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death." 
Sin is a common disease, afflicting humanity. I am 
no theologian — never studied theology. I am not 
boasting of the fact, but I state it as a fact: I despise 
theology and botany, but I do love religion and flow- 
ers. There is many a fellow that has studied theol- 
ogy until he knows theology, but he does n't know any 
thing else in the universe. He is fit for heaven, but 
not fit for earth. I am no theologian; I cannot be 
tried by theological rules, but you may try me by this 
book. It is not necessary to swallow John Calvin's 
creed to be saved; it is faith in Christ, and not in the 
creed, that saves the soul. 

I think I know something about what sin is. I kno\* 



14$ Sermons and Sayings. 



practically what sin is, and what it will do for a fel- 
low, too. I have been there. Now, when we talk of 
evil there is a great deal said about depravity. It is 
a theological term. Some of us say we believe in to- 
tal depravity, and some in partial depravity. You 
know you have downright damnation in you, and that 
ought to satisfy the most greedy on that subject. We 
do not pret6.ud to say whether it is this, or that, or the 
other; if we followed the bent of our own nature it is 
downward and hellward every time. Sin is a disease 
as well as the transgression of the law of God. Sen- 
ator Hill, of Georgia, had some trouble on the side of 
his tongue. It was caused by a fractured tooth, the 
papers said. The next I saw r was that Senator Hill 
was under the knife of a surgeon in Philadelphia. 
They took out one-third of his tongue, and cut out all 
the glands of one side of his face. When the opera- 
tion was over young Ben Hill asked the surgeons, "Is 
there any chance for my father?" They replied: "If 
we have extracted the last particle of the virus of the 
cancer, he will get well; and if not, he will die." The 
next thing I heard he had gone to the springs some- 
where in the West. A few days later I walked down 
to the depot in my town; the passenger-train rolled 
up and stopped, and I saw what looked like the out- 
lines of Senator Hill's face. He pushed his bony 
hand out of the window of the car, and I said: "Is 
this all that is left of Senator Hill, the grandest man 
that Georgia ever produced?" Shortly after that the 
Atlanta Constitution said: "The largest procession 
ever seen in Georgia carried Senator Hill to the cem- 
etery yesterday." Now, I say to my congregation, 
just as certainly as cancer killed Senator Hill's body, 



Sekmons and Sayings. 149 



just so certainly the virus of sin will kill your soul. 
It is not a question of outward forms of Church-mem- 
bership, or how you have been baptized — it is as deep 
as the virus of cancer. Eliminate it from your moral 
nature. Let Church-members step into the back- 
ground a little, and let us all look the facts in the 
face. My God, is there yet a moral cancer that will 
damn me at last? Thank God, eighteen hundred 
years ago this old world began to sing: 

There is a fountain filled with blood, 

Drawn from Emmanuel's veins; 
And sinners plunged beneath that flood 

Lose all their guilty stains. 

Yes, wash all my sins away. Thank God, there is 
hope for the race; there is hope in the universal re- 
demption of the race! Have you been washed and 
cleansed in the blood of the Lamb? If there is one 
fact in my own experience that stands out more prom- 
inently than any other fact, it is that I rushed up to 
the cross and realized how sweetly and grandly God 
can save the sinner. O thank God for the hope of the 
race that is found at the fountain that was opened up 
for sin and uncleanness! That cross erected on Cal- 
vary will save millions of the race. 

We will be practical at the expense of every thing 
except truth; and we say, first, "He that pursueth pvi] 
pursueth it to the death of his conscience." The poet 
was nearly right when he said: 

What conscience dictates to be done, 

Or warns me not to do, 
This teach me more than hell to shun, 

That more than heaven pursue. 

1 am read} 7 to say here in my place to-night that tbf 



L'K) Seemons and Sayings. 



most fearful sin a man ever can commit is to sin de- 
liberately against his own conscience. Every willful 
sin of my life is a stab at my conscience, and we stab, 
and stab, and stab, until conscience expires and is 
dead forever. Personal conscience is dead, municipal 
conscience is dead, national conscience is dead. One 
out of a hundred stops and asks, "Is that right? is 
that wrong?" Ninety-nine in a hundred ask: "Is 
there money in that? is there power in that? Can I 
find in that something that will lift me in the eyes 
of the world?" Conscience says, "Is that right? is 
that wrong?" Policy says, "Is that popular? will 
that pay?" Now we won't go away from home to 
discuss the matter. When I am in this city I talk 
to this city, and let everybody else alone. I will 
never be as mean to you as you have been to me. 
You waited till I left town and then shelled me out. 
[ do n't know what has become of all of those corre- 
spondents that filled the daily papers. Why don't 
they sail in now? And if any correspondent sails in 
let him sail in over his own name. If I can get him 
up here and shake him you will see him hit the 
ground running. You can't shake a nam de plume 
much, though. I throw down the gauntlet and tell 
you to pitch in; and when you say I am a coward you 
lie from head to heel! "He that pursueth evil pur- 
suuth it to his own death" — to the death of his con- 
science. The conscience of this town has been sinned 
to death. That is what is the matter. I will illus- 
tr?ite what I mean: I was running a revival-meeting 
in a town, and every drunkard was converted. If 
there is a class of men on the earth that I sympathize 
with it is the drunkards. My God, how near I came 



Sermons and Saiings. 151 



to being swept down to hell by liquor! Here stands 
a man that will die by you, and will pray with you 
until you die. God save the poor drunkard! If your 
wife weeps over you as my wife's heart bled for me, 
if your home is as desolate as my home was desolate, 
let me tell you there is hope and recovery at the cross 
of Christ. Do not be doubtful; do not hesitate. I 
say the conscience of this town is dead. When I held 
this meeting where those poor drunkards were con- 
verted, I said, " We are going to help these people all 
the way to God." One night after the meeting the 
council met in that town. At that meeting a bar- 
keeper walked in and said, "I will give you two hun- 
dred dollars if you will let me sell whisky." That 
mayor and council received his money and went home 
and went to bed and slept like seven hogs, and got up 
next morning and ate breakfast like seven more hogs. 
Once I could sin with a vengeance, but God bless you 
I could not sleep at night. I will never sell whisky; 
I will steal first. If I ever want to sell it I am going 
to that town and get license from those old members 
of the Church, and I will tell my wife to put my li- 
cense in the coffin when I die. I will pull out my li- 
cense and tell the Lord, " Here 's my license, signed 
by Methodist stewards and Baptist deacons;" and 
God Almighty will put us all in hell together. " I 
signed that as mayor!" Yes, when you sink down 
into hell tell them, "Here goes a mayor!" I reckon 
it will be a good deal of consolation to an old "hypo-, 
crite to know that he is there as a mayor; to an old 
pretender that he is there as a member of the coun- 
cil. If you countenance these things and put youi 
fist to these documents, vou will be damned for it ae 



152 Sermons and Sayings. 



certain as God reigns in heaven, unless you repent. 
We Christians vote to license liquor-selling, and make 
the liquor-dealers pay us enough money to pay our 
taxes, and then stand around on the street and abuse 
them for selling it. I am tired of hearing liquor- 
'dealers abused. You curse these bar-keepers. You 
had better curse these Methodists, Presbyterians, 
and Baptists in your city. If these men would quit 
drinking they would close half the drinking-places 
in thirty days. They would put whisky out of this 
city in twelve months from to-day. 

If you will arouse the conscience of the people of 
this town they will not debauch their boys nor their 
fellow-citizens for the pitiful sum paid for license. 
Quit talking against these bar-keepers. God holds 
the Christian voters of this place accountable for this 
curse. If a bar-keeper were to go to you and say, "I 
will give you five hundred dollars to make your boy a 
drunkard," you would spurn him from your presence; 
and yet for the sum of two hundred dollars you will 
give him the privilege of making your neighbor's boy 
a drunkard. You will not escape. Some of your own 
will go in that way. May God come down upon your 
city and tear the grave-clothes off of this body of 
death! I don't believe in mixing politics and relig- 
ion, but I believe in mixing religion with my politics. 
It helps it as much as sugar does coffee. "When- 
ever you hear of a fellow who does not believe in mix- 
ing it, it is because he has none to mix. If you will 
put the executive authority and the police in a lint? 
with the pulpits, you will succeed. Louisville has 
crushed out every gambling-hell, and says no man 
shall gamble there; but we hope to hear that she has 



Sermons and Sayings. 153 



also banished that which makes gamblers — whisky. 
We of Georgia, in less than three years from to-day, 
mean to put this accursed stuff out of our borders 
forever. In a majority of the counties in our State 
there are no liquor-sellers, and we have given orders 
to those in the remaining counties to emigrate. We 
do n't want your State to run liquor over the borders. 
Your representative men fail to take hold of this mat- 
ter in earnest. I pray God Almighty that he and the 
good women of your State will put this curse out for- 
ever. For every bar-room in your city you can put 
down a dozen broken-hearted wives and mothers. 
Tramp, tramp, tramp! the boys are marching sixty 
thousand strong a year into drunkards' graves, and 
into a drunkard's hell; and we Christians are stand- 
ing around abusing bar-keepers. Wake up the con- 
science of this city, and you are going to see better 
times. Already God has answered the prayers of 
these good women. "God shield and protect my 
child!" is the prayer of every good woman. To a 
bar-keeper in Huntsville, Alabama, I said: "I will 
steal before I will sell whisky." He got mad. "Now, 
sir," I said, "there is that woman living on thtj hill. 
You made her husband a drunkard, and he di'jd a 
drunkard's death and went to a drunkard's hell. One 
of her boys is now in prison, and the other is gone 
she knows not where. To ruin that family as you 
have done, or to break in and steal their money, which 
is worse?" "I don't want to discuss the subject," 
he said. I have had a great deal to do with wJiisky- 
pellers, and a bigger-hearted set of fellows never lived, 
There are whisky men to whom I would go for a favoi 
rather than to many members of the Church. A £<J 



154 Sermons and Sayings. 



low can "Brother" me around till he thinks I belong 
to him. You noble men in a thousand respects, let 
me say to you that the business you are in will curse 
you when you are dead and gone. There is not a 
whisky man in this town that I would not do good. 
Some of you have done me favors that I can never 
forget. Your only hope in time and in eternity 
is to renounce your traffic and come to God and live. 
Lock up your doors, and say, " I am done forever! " I 
will take you arm in arm, and we will march to the 
good world together. I have had many a bar-keeper 
say to me : " I knew it was wrong from the day I start- 
ed till the day I quit. The only way I could keep at it 
was to keep drunk all the time to keep my conscience 
quiet." You may keep statistics on it, and you will 
find that the Lord makes you open your mouth and 
pours down your own throat just what you feed other 
people on. "He that pursueth evil pursueth it to 
his own death." How sin kills and dries up the sen- 
sibilities of a man ! A man who could once have been 
of some account becomes a seared, parched carcass. 
He says, " I have got no feeling." Sin naturally de- 
stioys the sensibilities of a man, and leaves him as 
hard as the nether millstone. The natural tendency 
of sin is to take every brake off a man's moral nature, 
and turn him loose down-grade. 

The train pulled through the tunnel thirteen miles 
from the bridge below in the valley. The engineer 
started her down the grade. In a few rounds of the 
wheels she was running a mile a minute, and thus 
whirled on until within one mile of the bridge. He 
turned the lever of his air-brakes; they would not 
work. He caught his whistle - lever and pulled it. 



Sermons and Sayings. 155 



There they were, thundering along at seventy miles 
an hour. The brakemen could not get out to those 
brakes to save their lives. The motion of the train 
would throw them to the ground in a minute. The 
whole train plunged into the bridge — the mail-car the 
baggage-car, the smoking-car, the passenger-cars — but 
the sleeper swung too far out and struck the bridge, 
and fell with a fatal crash into the river below. They 
could not stop, that was all. I frequently ride on the 
engine when traveling in Georgia, and when I came 
to your city the other day I was sitting on a magnifi- 
cent Rogers engine. I saw "Slow" on the bridge 
down there. The engineer turned on his air-brakes, 
and the train was under control. The next power to 
that throttle — the power to start — is that other power, 
the power to stop. That is the next grandest power. 
The natural tendency of sin is to take off the brakes 
and tarn the sinner loo&e on the down-grade to hell. 
On he rolls and on he rolls, faster and faster, like 
poor Bob Rickey, in Rome, until mad with delirium 
tremens it took four friends to hold him on his bed. 
He said, "O doctors, m there any chance to save my 
life? " They said: " Nc, Bob. If you drink, you will 
die; if you don't drink, you will die." With wife and 
children hanging round his neck, his soul plunged 
into bell. 

How long may we go on sinning? 

How long" will God forbear? 
Where does hope end, and where begin 

The confines of despair ? 

There are men in this city bo-night who are just as 
certain to die drunk as that I am preaching here to 
you. God pity the poor man who will die of licen- 



150 Sermons and Hayings. 



tiousness! You leave Christ and the life beyond to 
which you can never return. God save me from the 
phantasm that turns me down the fearful grade with- 
out a brake on my moral nature! There are men in 
this city who have sinned against God until their 
minds will not take hold on his truth. Their minds 
will no more take hold of gospel truth than they 
could make a world. O God, have mercy on men who 
have sinned until they cannot grasp the sacred truth! 
"He that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death," 
to the death of his soul. I can certainly understand 
you when you say that a man's conscience is dead — 
his sensibilities are gone forever; that he has sinned 
away his power to grasp the sacred truth, and that 
every brake is gone from a man's moral nature; but 
when you bring me to face the death of the soul you 
make me tremble from head to foot. The death of 
the soul! What does it mean? Eternal death. Just 
put these two words before you — eternal death. Death 
eternal! "He that pursueth evil pursueth it to the 
death of his soul." What a thought! I shudder. 
What is death to the body ? I walk up to that dying 
friend's bed. I look down upon him. I see he i?> 
passing away in the agony of death. I look at the 
twitching and jerking of the muscles. I turn away 
iii horror from the picture. There is the glare on the 
eyes, jerking of the muscles, heaving of the bosom. 
This is only temporal death. What is eternal death? 
It is to die forever. Thank God, there is no death to 
a good man! "He that liveth and believeth on me 
shall never die." 



Sermons and Sayings. 157 



SAYINCS. 

I despise theology and botany, but I love religion 
and flowers. 

More people will be damned on account of their 
money than for any thing else. 

The natural tendency of sin is to take all the brakes 
off a man's moral nature, and turn him loose on the 
down-grade to hell. 

Hell is the center of gravity for wickedness; heav- 
en is the center of gravity for righteousness. This is 
the lineage of damnation, and the lineage of salva- 
tion. 

We Christian people vote to license liquor-selling, 
and make the saloon-keepers pay us enough money to 
pay for the coffins and hearses and graves of our poor 
drunken sons. God help us to quit killing our chil- 
dren! 

For every bar-keeper in your city you can put down 
a dozen broken-hearted wives and mothers. Tramp, 
tramp, tramp! the boys are marching sixty thousand 
strong, annually, down into drunkards' graves and 
into a drunkard's hell. God holds the Christian peo- 
ple of this city accountable for all of this blood and 
crime and death and hell. May God come down upon 
this city and tear the grave-clothes from the body of 
this death and hell! 



SERMON XI. 

Weary and Heavy-laden, 

(A Sermon to the Convicts in the State Penitentiary.) 
* Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will 
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for 1 am 
meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matt. xi. 28-30. ) 

HESE are the words not only of a Divine Sav- 
iour, but of a Divine Philosopher. I do n't sup- 
pose there ever was so much sympathy concen- 
trated in any human heart as the Lord Jesus possessed. 
He proclaimed himself a Divine Saviour, and demon- 
strated the fact that he was a Divine Philosopher. 
He invited all men to come to him personally. Now, 
the great difficulty with the most of men is that each 
one thinks that his case is unlike that of anybody 
else; that nobody has just the kind of trouble he has. 
"Now, the great trouble with doctors is to find out just 
what the sickness is, and then they can try to relieve 
it immediately. Your child may be sick, and you feel 
worried and call in a physician. The physician ex- 
amines the child, and makes what is called a diagnosis 
of the case. So soon as the diagnosis is made, he can 
determine what the trouble is, and apply the remedy 
immediately. After the diagnosis is made, after the 
disease is located, any physician can treat the case. 
And the physician may possibly make a mistake in his 
diagnosis of the case; but the Lord Jesus Christ has 
never missed the diagnosis in a single case. He knows 
not only every man's heart thoroughly, but he can pat 
(158) 



Sermons and Sayings. 159 



his finger right on the spot where the disease is. And 
you only walk 'up into the presence of the Divine Sav- 
iour, and, without putting his eye or finger on you, he 
knows and can tell you where you are weak; he knows 
where you need propping, doctoring, and patching 
up; he knows just your condition from head to foot. 
It follows conclusively if a physician knows what is the 
matter with the man, then he knows what to do for 
him. In the sickness of my own children at home I 
watch the physician's face very closely as he diagnoses 
the case, and as long as I see an expression of doubt 
or care upon his face I feel very uneasy; but when at 
last I see the physician's face light up with a con- 
sciousness that he has located the trouble, and knows 
where it is, I am satisfied that the doctor has the case 
fully in hand. The Lord Jesus Christ runs his eyes 
through this immense number, and he knows where 
your trouble is, where yours is [pointing at convicts]. 
He knows where you have broken down; he knows 
which wheel has broken down, and which side of the 
wagon, and how many spokes are out, and whether the 
hub is bursted. He knows you from bottom to top, 
through and through. He knows exactly how came 
you here; he knows exactly how long your term is' 
he knows exactly the condition under which you acted 
he knows your wife; he knows where she lives; he 
sympathizes with her every day, and he helps her 
with her burden; and he knows your children. God's 
great heart goes out in sympathy and love to you and 
your children. To have the sympathy of a great heart 
like Christ's, and then have his voice say, "Come un- 
to me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I wiP 
give vou rest," is enough to win any one to be a Chri- 



160 Sekmons and Sayings. 



tian. Christ knows not only your trouble, and how 
to locate it, but he has got a remedy in divine grace 
that "will brace and strengthen you right where you 
broke down. I am so glad that my Saviour not only 
loves and sympathizes with me, but that he has got the 
verj thing I want him to give when I approach in 
prayer and supplication. He doesn't refer to bish- 
ops, or to priests, or to churches, or to angels. He 
just says to all the race of men: "Here I stand, with 
my heart gushing out like a river with love and sym- 
pathy, with my head ready to diagnose every case, 
and so come to me." There is a good deal in confi- 
dence. If a man has unbounded confidence in a doc- 
tor, the doctor can almost make his indisposition re- 
spond to treatment, and it makes very little difference 
what the treatment is. It is a good deal like coming 
to Christ. "Lord Jesus, I have come to you; all other 
physicians have made a failure of me, and here I am; 
now I will put my case in your hands." I want to 
tell you, if you will put your case in God's hands, he 
will bring you out of this institution an honored citi- 
zen. There is many a man in this world who has 
done far worse than you have. This, however, is no 
extenuation of your crime. If you have only sinned 
in the sight of God, God loves you just as much 
as if you had not sinned. God loves a sinner. God 
leaps over these walls like a deer over the fence. 
God is in here every day, and he is in here in love 
to-day. Much worse things can be done to a man 
than to put him in a place like this. 

The great trouble with man when he is brought face 
to face with the Father is his consciousness that "I 
am a prisoner; I am a prisoner in the sight of hu- 



Sermons and Sayings. 161 



manity; I am wearing these clothes, and humanity 
looks down on me." There is something in that 
that may make you drop your head for a moment; 
but drop it just for a moment to hear the voice of 
God say to you that he loves the poor prisoner as 
much as he does the Governor of this State. You 
go outside of that wall, and the sun shines outside 
just like it does inside. So the great heart of God 
loves a man on the inside of these walls just like he 
does on the outside of these walls. God knows the 
life and nature of the sin of every one here. I feel great 
sympathy for you all. It is no good in me that ever 
kept me out of such a place as this; but it was a fort- 
unate circumstance, and the grace of God coming 
through a good mother; that 's about all that kept me 
out of a place like this. My heart goes out in sym- 
pathy for you. 

"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy- 
laden." You know the person to whom you are in- 
vited is the Lord Jesus Christ. Humanity is divided 
into two classes. The first is the class that is labor- 
ing to keep the law. They won't tell lies; they won't 
swindle anybody; they won't curse; they won't break 
the Sabbath ; they are laboring to keep the law. I see 
your mistake; you come to me. The other class are 
the heavy-laden. Every man in this world is either 
laboring and living upright and honest and respecta- 
ble, or he is heavy-laden with difficulty. You don't 
know what to do. Now, the Christian man who has 
gone to Christ has solved all his problems and diffi- 
culties. Are you laboring to be a good man? Are 
you laboring to reform your life? If you are, take 
Christ into partnership with you. I have never known 
11 



162 Seumons and Sayings. 



a failure where Christ was in the firm. I have never 
known a success where Christ was not in. You need 
his great heart to comfort you; you need his great 
love to help you. You will fail if you do not take 
him in. Some of you have begun to reform your lives, 
and have made the sacred vow to Christ that if you 
ever get out of here again you will never get this State 
into trouble. Some of you have made that resolution, 
and you are going to stick to it. If you want to make 
your word good, come to Christ. Take him in as a 
partner, and in every transaction of your life you let 
the Lord Jesus Christ scrutinize that transaction; and 
if he does n't approve of it, you let it alone. Do you 
know that every man in this prison made the mistake 
of his life by not listening to this book? Do you 
know that this book never made a convict, or put a 
man in a cell. You follow this book, and if you ever 
get into trouble I will go into the penitentiary for 
you. There are heaps of fellows who thought they 
knew more than this book; but they generally got 
fooled and got into trouble in the end. They say 
there is no trouble in whisky; yet the Lord says, "Look 
not upon the wine when it is red" — much less drink 
it — "for at last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth 
like an adder." When the poor fellow is in delirium 
tremens he then realizes that God told the truth when 
he said, " It biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an 
adder." 

"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are hea^y- 
laden, and I will give you rest." Some of you feel 
called upon before God and man. You are a poor 
sinner. There are one hundred here to-day who would 
be willing to stand up nnd say, "I am a poor sinner 



Sermons and Sayings. 163 



before God." You are the especial ones. Christ in- 
vites and names you first. "I know," says he, " every 
trouble that presses on your heart; now come to me. 
I know how to relieve you and how to bless you; come 
unto me, and I will give you rest." When I was a 
sinner a few years ago, and was doing all the harm 
and wrong I could, I woke up, and my whole being 
was a raging stream; and I was so restless that I fell 
down on my knees and said, "God be merciful to me, 
a sinner;" and when God came to me, and the Lord 
Jesus told me, " I have given you rest," then I thought 
to myself, "Is this rest? " I never knew what I want- 
ed, and God named it for me, and it is rest. 

The word "tired." If I wanted to understand what 
that word meant I would not go to a dictionary, but 
would go to the poor fellow who had been carrying 
mortar up those flights of stairs to the top of that 
building. All day long he walks up and down those 
stairs, and about night I see his knees are tremulous 
and weak; they will hardly hold him up. When that 
fellow quits at sundown, I will ask him what is "tired." 
He knows all about it. If anybody knows what un- 
rest is, it is a poor sinner. The devil has got no mer- 
cy on a sinner. The devil will put his chains around 
our limbs and trot us without stopping. That is his 
style, and there is many a man in here to-day who has 
got tired of that sort of business. The difference be- 
tween the devil and the penitentiary is that the peni- 
tentiary works you hard and boards you, but the devil 
pats you to the meanest, dirtiest jobs in the world 
and makes you board yourself. Is n't it strange that 
anybody in the world will serve the devil, or do anj 
thing for him? O to serve the devil I must demor- 



164 Sermons and Sayings. 



alize my moral nature; I must break my wife's heart 
and ruin my children! 

I want to tell you this: There may be some of you 
in here who are innocent. There could hardly be so 
many punished without some being innocent. I do n't 
know how many there are of that sort. I do n't know 
whether there is one; but I will say this to you: All 
the trouble you ever got into was when you turned your 
back on Christ and turned your face on the devil, and 
did something that the devil wanted you to do and 
that Christ did not want you to do. This world has 
got to come to this fact: that the best thing a man can 
do is to do right, and that wrong is the worst thing a 
man can do. If you do right, it is a personal benefit; 
if you do wrong, you can never get over it. We see 
this when a man comes to the Lord Jesus Christ. The 
Lord Jesus tells him there are some things he must 
not do and there are some things he must do. Now, 
for instance, I will illustrate that. You see that 
old ox? He goes where he pleases, drinks when he 
pleases, eats when he pleases, roams where he pleases. 
I will go up and put a yoke on him, and then he eats 
and drinks when his master allows him, and he works 
at just what his master puts him. And the Lord Je- 
sus Christ calls on us, and he says: "When I say eat, 
you eat; when I say driuk, you drink; when I say you 
lie down and sleep, you lie down and sleep. ' Take my 
yoke upon you, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.' '' 
There is a good deal of difference between rest and 
resting. You see a fellow that has been resting all 
day, and you ask him: "What are you doing? " And 
he says, "I am resting." As soon as he gets rested 
he wants to get up and be doing something. A state 



Sermons and Sayings. 165 



of restlessness is a state of activity. When a sinner 
comes to Christ he is tired. Christ sits him down 
and allows him to rest. Now, he is rested, and he 
wants to do something. Now, "Take my yoke upon 
you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly of 
heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Here 
is a little stream of water flowing along smoothly, 
and that little stream in its frolics and courses says: 
"I am tired; I want rest." Man throws up a dam, 
and he sees the placid waters of the little stream pile 
on the dam, and there they are resting like a little 
child on its mother's arm. And it rests and rests, 
and again it begins to get dissatisfied and unhealthy; 
then the little creek says: "Now that I have got rest, 
I want to be turned loose and get rest." We see it 
turned loose, and it runs down and turns a mill-wheel, 
and then runs down and turns a factory-wheel; farther 
down it runs a machine-shop. And so that little 
stream is finding rest in its usefulness as it goes to 
its destination. Let us pile up our lives around the 
cross of our blessed Saviour, and stay there until we 
are perfectly rested in Christ; and when the rest comes 
he says to us, " Come out and bless the nations." Go 
to work on that plan every one of you, and help your 
neighbor. The sweetest rest a man ever had is the 
rest he finds in activity. I believe serving God is the 
only thing a man never gets tired of doing. Lots of 
the merchants say, "I am going to quit the mercan- 
tile business; it is too hard." Lawyers say, "I am 
going to quit the legal profession; I am worked to 
death." And doctors say, "I am going to drop out of 
the business, because it is too hard." I want to tell 
you that uo lawyer or merchant in the world is anv 



J (56 Sermons and Sayings. 



busier than I am; but I am going on until God calls 
me up higher. I would not swap places with Presi- 
dent Cleveland — not that I would have the choice of 
swapping, but, thank God, my job lasts through eter- 
nity, and his only four years. 

"Take my yoke upon you." All the trouble I ever 
got into was when I slipped that yoke and said, "I 
will do as I please;" and all the trouble I ever had 
was when I did what I pleased and as I pleased. 
And that is the reason you are here to-day. If you 
had listened to Christ you would have been in a bet- 
ter place. 

" Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me." He 
has no great desire to make his subjects bow down in 
submission. But he says: "Come to me, children of 
men; 'I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall 
find rest unto your souls.'" There is quite a differ- 
ence between given and found rest. I go out on the 
hills of Colorado and see scattered over those hills 
quartz full of gold. Sometimes there is a piece of 
gold in a quartz-rock worth twenty-five dollars. That 
gold came to you. But if you will take a spade or 
shovel and sink a shaft, you will find a vein of rich 
gold that is worth millions. Now, when I get my pick 
and go down and find a ton of gold, that is found 
gold. That on top is given; that at the bottom is 
found. If you will come to Him, he has enough to 
make you a happy man. God put enough on top, but 
he says, "Go down." And the way up is down; "he 
that humbleth himself shall be exalted." 

There is one good thing about Christianity: Christ 
not only knows all about me and heals me, but he tells 
me how to stay healed. He tells me how to do as a 



Sebmons and Sayings. 167 



father and husband. My wife has a heap better hus- 
band since I obeyed Christ. He tells me how to act 
as a neighbor. He tells me how to obey my State and 
county, and I am a heap better citizen than I would have 
been had it not been for my association with Christ. 
My wife loves me, my neighbors respect me, and my 
State is proud to claim me as one of her sons. When 
I turn my back on Christ I get into trouble. I want 
to tell you one secret in my life : I have never yet un- 
dertaken a thing without Christ's help, and without 
asking his help, but that I failed in it. I never asked 
him to help me in a single thing that he did not help 
me through. Now, do n't forget that. Religion is a 
good thing for a fellow down here in Tennessee. I 
am not a citizen; but if I was, I would want to be a 
religious man. Religion is a good thing down in 
Georgia and this State . There is nothing better in 
heaven than religion. When you have got religion, 
you have got the best thing in heaven or earth. Re- 
ligion in this world is inlaid with pearl and gold. We 
receive a beautiful gift. We may lay it on the table 
in the parlor as the gift of a friend, and there it stays 
on the table, and we show it to our friends. One day 
some one handles it, and a hidden spring is touched, 
and the lid flies open, and there is the richest jewel 
inside. Religion is a beautiful casket, and we show 
it to our friends; but when a Christian man touches 
the secret spring of his religion, heaven and everlast- 
ing life open out to him. Let us give our hearts to 
God, and accept religion, and when we die this will be 
as a spring-board on which we can leap right into the 
glories of the world above. Some of you people may 
die in this prison. If you should die in this prison 



168 Sermons and Sayings. 



some morning about four o'clock, and die a Christian 
and die in the sight of heaven, and wake up in a new 
world, and throw your eyes around over the jasper 
walls and pearly gates and golden streets, do n't you 
reckon you would be happy? I want to tell you this 
incident from the penitentiary in Indiana: Several 
years ago there was a man incarcerated in prison for 
eight years. His time was nearly out. He had never 
taken any interest in religion. He took very little in- 
terest in the preaching of the gospel at the prison. 
Just before his time was out a man came in to preach, 
and took this text: "Call upon the Lord in time of 
trouble, and he will succor thee." This poor fellow 
heard the sermon and was converted. After a few 
days his time was out, and he put on a suit of citi- 
zen's clothes and walked out into the city; and when he 
walked out on the streets he looked up and down and 
said: "What can I do? I have not a friend in the 
world; I have not a dollar in my pocket, nor any work 
to do. Here I am." "Call upon the Lord in time of 
trouble, and he will succor thee." And he lifted his 
eyes up to God: "O God, if you will help me for two 
days so I won't do any thing wrong, then I will be a 
Christian man forever." He had not more than got 
the prayer out of his mouth when, casting his eyes up 
the street, he saw a horse with a phaeton hitched to it 
coming down at full speed. Every one was getting out 
of the way, and no one stopped the horse. This man 
saw a piece of plank on the sidewalk, and he took it, 
and as the horse came by he hit him on the head, and 
the horse fell in his tracks. Inside the buggy was a 
three-year-old boy unhurt, unharmed. Directly the 
father of the boy came running down the street, and 



Seemons and Hayings. 169 



waen lie readied the carriage and saw his sweet little 
boy unhurt, he asked, "Who was it?" They pointed 
to the poor convict, and the man ran his hand into his 
pocket and pulled out a twenty-dollar gold piece and 
handed it to him. As he took the gold piece, the fel- 
ow thought, " Call upon the Lord in time of trouble, 
and he will succor thee." Directly a man asked, 
"Where do you live?" and the poor fellow said, "I 
have no home in the world." "Won't you come to 
my house to dinner to-day?" and he gave him his 
name, with street and number. After dinner he told 
this good man his life — how he had gotten out of pris 
on, and how the man had given him twenty dollars. 
When he got through, the man said: "Well, sir, I am 
a Christian man, and if you want to be a good man J 
will help you; you can have a position in my store, 
and work in my family." And to-day, in the city of 
Indianapolis, that man is one of the leading Christian 
merchants of the city, and goes on his way to bless 
God and humanity. If you want to do right and get 
along in this world, call on God, and the first thing 
you know God will work out this problem for you. 

I am just from my home in Cartersville, Georgia. 
O what a pleasure to go down and spend twenty-four 
hours with my wife and children! How glad they 
were to see me! O there are men here to-day who 
would give almost any thing to go home and spena 
twenty-four hours ! Let us give ourselves to God, and 
by and by, when this old world is burned up, we shall 
be in heaven above with wife and children and lo\ e 
and honor. I want to see how many of you men and 
women feel in your hearts that you want to be good, 
and want the prayers of Christians. And I am in * 



L70 Sermons and Sayings. 



position to ask all the Christian people of this city 
to pray for you. I want every one who would call up- 
on God in this time of trouble to stand up. I trust 
we may meet in heaven. I pray God to bless your 
wives and children. 



SAYINGS. 

In a town in Georgia a number of girls married 
men to reform them, and now the town is full of little 
whip-poor-will widows. 

Whisky is a good thing in its place ; but its place is 
in hell. If I go there, I will drink all I can get; but 
I won't drink a drop of it here. 

If you will come to Christ, he has enough to make 
you a happy man. God put enough on top, but he 
says, " Go down ; " and the way up is down. " He that 
humbleth himself shall be exalted." 

The difference between the devil and the peniten- 
tiary is, the penitentiary works you hard and boards 
you, but the devil puts you to the meanest, dirtiest 
jobs in the world and makes you board yourself. 

Eeligion is a beautiful casket, which we show to 
our friends in our character; and when its secret 
spring is touched, heaven and eternal life open out to 
us. " A white stone, and in the stone a new name 
written, which no man knoweth saving he that re 



SERMON XI!. 

Conditions of Pardon. 

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive U8 out 
ains, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John i. 9.) 

HIS is an epitome of the gospel. It is wonder- 
ful how the whole gospel — that is, my side of 
the gospel — can be compressed into three lines 
of this book; but thus we have it. "If we confess our 
sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and 
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Now, to- 
night let us mix love and logic, the grandest com- 
pound ever put together in the universe. I want to 
get on your side to-night; the fact is, I want to live 
on humanity's side of the gospel, especially when I 
am in the pulpit. I want to look in the face of every 
man and woman here to-night and say this : God loves 
the meanest man as much as he loves the best man in 
this city God loves the meanest man that ever 
cursed this earth as much as he loves the best man 
that lives on the face of the earth. I have listened 
to some sermons and have said: "Surely God is mad 
with somebody. God has a grudge against some peo- 
ple, and is waiting to get them into a tight place to 
catch them. God is mad with these sinners, and will 
pour out the vials of his wrath on their devoted heads." 
But God's name and nature are love. It is just as 
natural for God to love every thing in the range of his 
heart as it is for the sun to shine on every thing in the 
range of its light The sun shines because it is its 

(171) 



172 Sermons and Sayings. 



nature to shine. It shines on that dead tree and oe 
the blossoming rose alike, because it is the nature of 
the sun to shine on all things that come within the 
radius of its rays. God loves every being that ever 
came under the burning rays of his heart. The most 
obdurate, hardened heart— the good, the bad — God 
loves all alike, because it is his nature to love. God 
can no more help loving every man than the sun can 
help shining. Why, some sinners who hear me to- 
night think that the prayers of a sinner are an abom- 
ination to the Lord. That is a mistake as long as 
eternity. Listen: "The prayers of the wicked are an 
abomination." You ask the Lord on the street to 
damn somebody. That prayer is an abomination, but 
the prayer, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner," is the 
sweetest music that ever charmed the ear of God. I 
don't know whether it is the fault of us preachers or 
not, but every old sinner thinks he has to take a week's 
journey through the wilderness to get to heaven. He 
has got to beat his way through briers and gullies 
and creeks and swamps before he can get to heaven. 
There is but one road. Heaven is at one end, hell 
at the other. Every man in this city is on the road 
to heaven. The road to hell is the road to heaven. 
Here is hell, and there is heaven. It is not so much 
which road you are on as which way you are going. 
The meanest sinner does n't have to take a week's jour- 
ney to get to heaven. Turn round, and you are in the 
road to heaven. As soon as he gets turned round he 
is going to heaven. Therefore my book says, "Ee- 
pent," and that means turn round. Turn round, and 
you are traveling with the best man. I wish this 
world of thinking men could see that there is but one 



Sekmons and Saiings. 173 



road in the moral universe of God. Hell is at one 
end and heaven at the other end. Turn your back on 
one, and you are moving toward the other. 

Let us come to this text and think a moment. Here 
we are in the road to-night, and it is the only road in 
the universe. If I am turned by this text I am right. 
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to for- 
give us our sins." In other words, if I repent of my 
sins, he is faithful and just to forgive. Now, we say 
that repentance is to start a man on his way to God. 
This is just what the alphabet is to the man of letters. 
When I was a little boy at my mother's knee, learning 
the alphabet, I repeated the letters from A to Z, and 
then backward, and by sample lots, and my mother 
finally said: "You know your letters, my son; now 
you can begin to spell." I said: "I have had a tough 
time with these A B C's, but mother says I am ready 
to spell." I thought that would be harder, but just 
as my eye fell on that page I found it was covered 
with A B C's. When I got over to "baker" I found 1 
could not even spell "baker" without the alphabet. 
When I got over to "publication," I said, "Surely I am 
almost ready for my diploma;" but I could not spell 
"publication" without my A B C's. When mother 
said, "Get your First Header," I said, "Good-by, A B 
C's — now I am done with you forever;" but I found 
that from the first page to the very last they were all 
covered with A B C's. The eye could not read a line 
without them. The teacher said, "Tell your mother 
to get you a grammar." I found the grammar cov- 
ered from the first page to the last with the alpha 
bet When my teacher said, " Tell your mother to gel 
you an arithmetic," thinks I, "Arithmetic is the sciencf 



171 Sermons and Sayings. 



of numbers;" but I could not state a mathematical 
problem without the alphabet. So from the begin- 
ning on until a man graduates, he deals all the time 
with the alphabet; and even his very diploma is writ- 
ten in the alphabet. From the first step to the last 
he is working up through the alphabet. He never 
could move an inch without it. Now, sinner, the first 
thing I did was to repent. I have been repenting every 
day since. Thank God for repentance ! It is the first 
thing to be done, and be sure to make it the last thing 
before you leave the world. I am so glad that God 
will forgive a man when he repents. My hope is 
based on the fact that God will forgive a man every 
time he repents. 

"If we confess our sins." I like that expression. 
A man is never ready to confess his sins until he has 
qui! his sins. You let an old drunkard get religion 
and join the Church, and you will hear him say he 
was the biggest old drunkard this country ever saw; but 
you tackle that red-nosed fellow before he repents, and 
he will say that he does not know how liquor tastes. 
He has n't quit. Drink not only debauches a man for 
time and eternity, but there is not a drinking man in 
this city who does not lie about it every time he talks 
about it. If he takes twenty drinks a day he will say 
he takes only ten; if ten, only one. It will make a 
truthful man lie. Have you ever got to where your 
wife didn't believe you? The gullibility of a good 
wife is astonishing. When I told my wife about it 
after I quit, she was astonished at the whisky I had 
drank. When a man commences confessing he lias 
quit then. Get a gambler converted, for instance, and 
in every meeting when he gpts up he will say, "I wan 



Sermons and Sayings. 175 



the worst gambler in the city; " but you get up one of 
those black-logs, and he will say, " I do n't know one 
card from another." He has not quit; that is all. 1 
had two fellows up for drinking: one said, "I went to 
town and took one little drink, and it flew to my head r 
and I hope you will forgive me." He told two lies in 
one little confession. He said he took just one little 
drink, and that will make nobody but a fool drunk. 
He said he wanted forgiveness, and that was a lie; for 
if a man lies in one thing he will lie in another. The 
other fellow got up and said : " Brethren, I made a 
brute of myself and got beastly drunk, and disgraced 
myself and my family; but, brethren, if you can and 
will pardon me for that, and help me, I will not do so 
again." I said: "He is done; he is not a liar; he con- 
fesses to the bottom." A man's reformation nevei 
goes deeper than his confession, and " an honest con- 
fession is good for the soul." I will tell you that some 
of you Church-members will never get straight with 
God until you make confession to your church. I would 
get up there and shell the corn down right lively. 

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to 
forgive us." Now, to confess means simply this: 1 
have quit; I am done. Repentance — I am done; I 
have quit. If repentance does not mean reformation, 
it does not mean any thing; and reformation is re- 
pentance. I recollect in one town where I was preach- 
ing four young men came up to the altar, and they 
smelled like a Robertson county still-house. I en- 
couraged them, and all four were back next night — 
two sober, but the other two still smelling of whisky 
The following night they were all back again — three 
sober this time and one drunk; and I said to the drunk 



176 Sermons and bAYiNGs. 



en one, " You git, sir; you git! " He did n't mean busi* 
ness, did he? I help that sort out every time. I will 
give a fellow forty-eight hours, and those forty-eight 
hours will put the test to him. The best man I ever 
knew in my life came to the altar so drunk that he 
didn't know who he was. If you are drunk to-night 
I do n't care, so you are sober to-morrow. There are 
some men in this city who will have to get religion 
drunk if they get it at all, for they never draw a sober 
breath. I do believe God will save a man when he is 
drank. It is not so much how the fellow stood then, 
but what is his attitude now? Old Uncle Jimmy 
Payne, the most saintly man we ever had, stopped at 
the corner grocery while his wife went to meeting. 
One night meeting held a little longer than usual, 
and he went down to church. He was so drunk he 
did not know who he was. When the call was made 
for persons wishing to join the church, he walked right 
up the aisle and gave the preacher his hand, to the dis- 
gust of everybody. His wife was shamed almost to 
death, but she got him home and put him to bed. In 
the morning she told him what he had done. She said, 
" Do n't you know you joined the Church last night? " 
"No." "Yes, you are a Church-member." He said 
he was not. " Yes, you are." He said, " Did I join ? " 
She told him he did. He lay perfectly still a minute, 
and then said, "If I did I will stick up to it;" and he 
did stick until God called him higher. I like that 
—I mean that sticking part. I reckon he must have 
got Presbyterian religion, but he made a good Meth- 
odist. I declare to you he was one of the most saintly 
men I ever saw, and that was the way he started. It 
is not what you are when you set out, but will you 



Sekmons and Sayings. 177 



stick up to it? If I was the biggest sinner in this city 
to-night I would listen to this text!" "If we confess 
[quit], he is faithful and just to forgive us." Preaching 
in my own town last fall I said: "You have seen me 
drunk many a time; but if you live to be as old as 
Methuselah, you will never see it again. Boys, you 
have heard me swear a thousand oaths; but if you 
live till your heads are as white as snow, you will never 
hear it again." The definition that an old lady once 
gave me of repentance is better than all the books can 
give. She said: "I '11 tell you what repentance is. It 
is being so sorry for your meanness that you won't do 
it any more." I like that doctrine. I will tell you 
what religion is. It is this: If God will just forgive 
me for it, I do n't want to do it any more. Repentance 
means, I am done. Religion is, I am so glad to be 
forgiven I will never want to do it any more. Now 
you have got it in a nut-shell, where you can get hold 
of it. As I look you in the face to-night, if you are 
ready to say, "I am done, I will quit," God will put 
his hand on you and save you. "If we confess our 
sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." 

My little Bob, when he was five years old, had more 
sense than I had when I was twenty-five. I got home 
one Monday afternoon, walked into the house and met 
wife, but no children at home. " Where are the chil- 
dren?" She said: "Dr. George Smith has a chil- 
dren's meeting this afternoon, and they have gone to 
hear him." "I am glad they are interested." By and 
by little Bob came in ahead of all the other children 
Be is the littlest fellow for his age you ever saw in 
your life. He is not like his father. I kissed him. 
"Bob," his mother asked, "what sort of meeting did 
12 



178 Sermons and Sayings. 



you have?" "We had a good meeting. Mr. Smith 
asked us all up to the altar." "Did you go, Bob?" 
"Yes. Mr. Smith said if I would come up and ask 
the Lord, he would forgive me." "Did he forgive 
you, Bob?" "Yes, sir; and made me feel good." 
"But suppose you get bad again, what then?" "I 
expect I will wait till Mr. Smith comes round again, 
and ask the Lord to forgive me again," If I go up 
and confess my sins, God will forgive me. If any 
man sin again, we have an Advocate with the Father. 
I wish I had known as much when I was twenty-five 
years old. I would just have got down and confessed, 
and then went on and confessed again. That same 
little fellow, at Bush Arbor, came out on the porch 
about sundown, and said, " Papa, I am going to get a 
blessing to-night." " Who blesses folks, Bob ? " " The 
good Lord blesses them." " How does he bless them ? " 
" They go up and promise to do better, and the Lord 
blesses them." At night, when the preacher said, "I 
am going to invite all you that want pardon to come 
up here and kneel down," Bob was sitting by his 
mother, and said: "Don't hold me, please ma'am; I 
want to go there and get a blessing." Soon he was 
kneeling at the altar, praying the Lord to give him 
that blessing. I lost sight of him in the crowd when 
the meeting closed, but he ran out and caught me by 
the hand. "Did you get a blessing?" "Yes, sir, I 
got it." One Sunday morning the pastor of the 
church read out seventy-six names. Bob was sit- 
ting back there with his mother, and directly he 
broke out crying as if his heart would break. " What 
is the matter, Bob?" "Mr. Bobbin never read out 
my name at all." His mother gave his name to the 



Sermons and Sayings. 179 



preacher, and when lie read out " Eobert W. Jones," the 
little fellow's face brightened up and he was satisfied. 
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to 
forgive us our sins." I will take this broad promise 
and invite a world upon it. Here is a promise broad 
enough for every sinner in this city to-night. I tell 
the sinner sometimes that this is illustrated by the 
way they arrange the drinking-pools on the stock- 
farms out West. They pat a board wall around the 
pool, and when the cattle are driven up there is no 
water in sight — not a single drop in the trough; but 
an old thirsty ox goes up on the platform, and forces 
the water up into the trough by his own weight, and 
he drinks and slakes his thirst. Mr. Tyndall climbed 
up on some theological platform and looked in, and 
said, "There is not a drop of water in that trough.' 1 
I tell my friends that it is getting up on that platform. 
If you do, you will force the water of salvation up to 
quench the thirst of your dying soul, and you will go 
home saved. If we can get you up — and we can if 
you will take God at his word — if you will confess 
your sins, God is faithful and just to forgive, but he 
has said something better than that. I thought par- 
don was grand and glorious, but he has said: "1 will 
separate your sins from you as far as the east is from 
the west. I will blot them out, and remember them 
no more forever." You say, "If I get to heaven I 
can never hold my head up, I have done so many 
mean things." I thought so too till I ran across that 
blessed old Psalm, " I will blot out your sins and re- 
member them no more forever." I never saw it illus- 
trated better than when I was preaching at Fifth and 
Walnut, iu Louisville. One of the best men I eve* 



180 Sermons and Sayings. 



worked with was Rev. J. C. Morris. He said in meet- 
ing that he had been a mean sinner before conversion, 
and his aged mother afterward said to him: "Jimmy, 
what makes you say you have been mean? You have 
been good all your life." That was a little of the 
Spirit of God in that old mother's heart. We shall 
walk the golden streets just as if we had never done 
any thing wrong in the world. " Who will lay any 
thing to the charge of God's elect?" It is his hand 
that justifies. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful 
and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from 
all unrighteousness." 

I will tell you how it is. If a sinner is condemned 
to be hanged the next Friday and breaks out with small- 
pox, he is in a bad fix. If he does n't die with small- 
pox, he will be hanged. There is that impending sen- 
tence hanging over the sinner ; and in addition to that, 
there is a moral corruption that would ruin him if 
there were no God or devil or hell. There is not 
much use looking after his small-pox until we get a 
pardon for him. If I can wring that from the Gov- 
ernor, then I want the best doctor in the country to 
go to work on him. I know we are corrupt by nature. 
The first thing we want is pardon. God says he will 
not only pardon us but cleanse us from all unright- 
eousness. Thank God for that! Is there any thing 
that a man has done that the gospel of the Son o^ 
God won't remedy? But that poor fellow says, "If 
1 wash up I am afraid I won't hold out, humanity is 
so weak." Poor humanity! The gospel is nothing 
more nor less than a line of wagon-shops on the way to 
heaven to mend your vehicle and start you on the road 
again. I rolled my old broken-down humanity under 



Sermons a.nd Sayings. 18J 



the wagon-shop of the cioss. In a few minutes it was 
fixed from tongue to coupling-pole. I was fixed up 
for time and eternity, and I started; but, sir, I did n't 
get a mile until down came a wheel. I said: "I 
will give it up; I am gone." I looked up the road- 
side, and the wagon-maker said, "Just bring that 
wagon here, and I will fix it up." "How much do I 
owe you ? " I said when the repairs were made. " Noth - 
ing; only promise to stop at the next shop if you break 
down." I did n't go two miles till smash came down 
one of the axles. I said: "I am breaking down every 
mile. I might as well quit.'* "Bring that axle up 
here; I am fixing axles. I charge you nothing; only 
be sure and stop at the next shop if you break again." 
"I have been too careless;" but soon I made a quick 
turn, and pop went the tongue; and I was about to 
give it up forever, when another wagon-maker said, 
"Bring it up here; I am working in the interest of 
wagons going in the right direction." I do n't believe 
I have got the linchpin of the old wagon I started 
with, it has broken down so many times; but if the. 
shops hold out, I am going through. I was talking 
with an old soldier who had been traveling all his life, 
I said, "Brother, do the shops hold out?" He an- 
swered: "They do. It is not half a year since 1 was 
in a shop myself." Thank God, no man ever broke 
down out of sight of a shop! 

Let us make a start. The question is not, "Have 
I got religion enough to take me to heaven?" but the 
question is, "Have I got enough to start?" Eight is 
right, and I am going to do it; wrong is wrong, and 
I am going to quit it. Once while admiring the loco- 
motive that was to draw our train from Atlanta to 



182 Sermons and Sayings. 



Chattanooga, I heard the engineer ask his fireman, 
"Have we steam enough to start with?" The reply 
was, "Yes, sir." On looking at the steam-gauge, I 
observed that the register was but sixty pounds, and 
that the capacity of the boiler was one hundred and for- 
ty. I wondered why so light a pressure was deemed suf- 
ficient; but the train had not run to the Chattahooche 
River, less than seven miles, before I saw the engine 
blowing off steam; it already had too much. And so 
it was at intervals all along the route. I found that 
the locomotive generated steam faster when running 
than when stationary. Mark you, that engineer did 
not ask, "Have we steam enough to run to the 
river, or to Chattanooga?" but, "Have we steam 
enough to start with?" Glory to God! we gener- 
ate power while in motion faster than when stand- 
ing still. Lord Jesus Christ, let men see that all 
they need is to step out in the right direction! 

how I want to see men make this start! Success 
for both worlds depends on a start. Where the road 
is rdugh the shops are thick; and just as sure as you 
live, they hold out to the next world. Before we leave 
this place to-night I wish I could see a thousand per- 
sons rise up and say: "As for me I want to start 
to the good world to-night. I am tired of a life of 
sin; I give myself to God." While we stand and sing, 

1 want every person who has more important busi- 
ness than looking after his soul's eternal welfare to 
leave at once. There is a chance for every one of us 
if we will start. I have tried to illustrate scriptural 
truth so you might take it in in all its beauty and 
power before we leave this assembly to-night. To 
stand up means to start. Did you know that? I have 



ISermons and Sayings. 183 



seen thousands of souls stand up, and those souls are 
now rushing on to the good world. We are going to 
ask every man here present to-night to stand up. J 
hope every person who wants to be a Christian will 
bland up. Thank God! 



SAYINGS. 

It is just as natural for God to love every thing 
within the range of his heart as it is for the sun to 
shine on every thing within the range of his light. 
The sun shines on the dead tree and the blooming 
rose alike; and God loves the good and bad alike, be- 
cause his nature is love. 

There is but one road. Heaven is at one end and 
hell at the other end. The road to hell is the road to 
heaven. The only difference is in the way you are 
going. It is not so much what road you are pn, but 
which way you are going. The meanest sinner only 
has to turn round and face the other way, and he is 
on the way to heaven. 

The gospel is a line of wagon-shops on the way to 
heaven. I rolled my old broken-down humanity under 
the wagon-shop of the cross; and in a few minutes I 
was fixed up from tongue to coupling-pole. And I 
rolled out; but I didn't get a mile before down went 
a wheel. I looked up the road-side and saw a shop, 
and the wagon-maker said, "Bring your wagon here, 
and I will fix it up." I didn't go two miles before 
smash went an axle. Then I broke the tongue; and 
from the breaking and mending I do n't think that by 
this time I have even a linchpin left of the wagon ] 
started with. 



SERMON XIII. 
What Shall the Harvest Be? 

(A Sermon to Men.) 

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man 
soweth, that shall he also reap." (Gal. vi. 7.) 

HIS service, as announced before, is held with 
special reference to commercial travelers or 
drummers, as we commonly call them. I will 
give them their proportion of this service. There are 
here many drummers, and more who are not drum- 
mers. We will give to you drummers in proportion 
to your numbers — no more, no less. There is no life 
that has the wear and tear of the drummer's life. No 
nobler, bigger hearted set of men ever lived and 
walked and traveled on the face of the earth than 
these men called drummers. I have been intimately 
associated with the drummers. I meet them at the 
hotels, on the streets, and on the trains, and a bigger- 
souled set of men I have never met; and harder cases 
than some of them I have never met. Now, that is 
about your proportion of the service; but we will go 
along as men. Now, I want to say to you as men, 
husbands, sons, fathers, no matter what your calling 
may be, I will reach your case either as a husband, as 
a father, or as a son; for we all occupy one of these 
three relations. Now, we take the text, "Be not de- 
ceived." We say in the first place that there are 
three absolute impossibilities in this life. There may 
be a thousand, but we know of three absolute impos- 
sibilities. In the first place, it is absolutely impossi- 
(184) 



Sekmons and Sayings. 185 



ble for a man continuously and successfully to prac- 
tice a fraud upon his immortality. If you are a good 
man, you know it; if you are not a good man, you 
know it. I care not how much you may bring to bear 
the flattery of your friends and your self -pride, if yo\i 
are not a good man God breaks the silence of eternity 
and brings you face to face with the fact of what you 
are, who you are, and whither you are going. God 
will not let a man lie down and sleep his way to hell. 
I know there are times when we are easy. There are 
times of great quietude of soul, when men do not 
think, or reason, or obey, but move along indifferent- 
ly. If you are not all right in your relations to God 
and eternity, he wakes you up now and then, and shows 
you the fact — thank God that it is true! — that no man 
can successfully and persistently practice a fraud on 
his own immortality. 

We say, in the next place, that no man can success- 
fully and continuously practice a fraud upon his neigh- 
bor. If you are not a good man, your neighbor knows 
it. Why, sir, if you should dress up in disguise to- 
morrow night, and go over and spend an hour with 
your neighbor, and get him to talk about you, you 
would hang your head after the first fifteen minutes; 
and you would walk off and say, "I had no idea any- 
body in the world thought thus of me." A good man 
is like a city set on a hill. You cannot hide him. You 
can see him for miles in the distance. There are men 
now before me who if they knew that I know as much 
as I do about them would not be here to-night. You 
would never look me in the face any more. Do you 
know that there are some men listening to my voice 
to-night who think they are all right, while there are 



186 Sermons and Sayings. 



thousands of men who know they are unfaithful to 
their wives? who know that it was your buggy that 
dro\e up there every time you went? You think no- 
body knew it. You built that house for somebody. 
You think it is all managed by your agent, and that 
nobody knows that woman doesn't pay any rent. 
They know that you are the fellow paying the rent. 
Ah me, my fellow-citizens! if we could realize that 
we are not practicing a fraud on our neighbors — that 
they know if our lives are not right! You think no- 
body knows you gamble. You walk out on the street in 
a magnificent suit of clothes, and nobody, you think, 
knows you gamble! You would be astonished to find 
that so many children know you are a gambler. You 
are not fooling anybody, you great big old fool, you. 
You think that everybody in town is green. You think 
that everybody believes you are a sheep, because you 
have a little patch of wool on your head about as big 
as a nickel! People know who you are every time 
you cross the road in a bed of snow. You know there 
is a great difference between a wolf's track and a 
sheep's track. By their tracks you shall know them. 
If you are not a good man, you would be astonished 
to learn how many of your brothers know it. Some of 
these preachers know it, but they would not say 
any thing about it for the world. They never talk 
about their neighbors. They are right, it may be. 
But let us meet this truth, as deep and broad as this 
world: You are a living epistle known and read of all 
men. As you live, your life goes out before the world. 
Then, in the next place, we say it is absolutely im- 
possible for a man to practice a fraud upon God Al- 
mighty. He knows you from head to foot. He knows 



Sermons and Sayings. 187 



you through and through — where you go; how much 
it costs. God's own eye rests upon you every moment 
of your life. Hear me, my fellow-countrymen, to- 
night! You are not practicing a fraud on yourselves 
nor on your neighbor; for your neighbor knows you 
as you are. I won't call your name, but you know 
your number. When a fellow's number is called, he 
will answer every time away down in his soul. If 
there is any thing I love it is a transparent man, who 
is pure from head to foot, with nothing to conceal. 
A man ought to live so as to maintain his own self- 
respect before the world. He ought to live so as to 
maintain the respect and confidence of the God who 
made him and the God who will finally judge him, 
Help us, O God, to conform our lives to these eter- 
nal truths! "Be not deceived." You know your 
number, and God knows you; for God is not mocked. 
That is a wonderfully strong expression. The literal 
translation of that verse is about this: You need not 
be turning up your nose at God and playing pranks 
on him; he knows you from head to foot. There is 
many a fellow playing pranks on his neighbor, his 
wife, and his mother; but God says: "You need not 
try to play pranks on me. I have numbered every 
hair on your head." 

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for what- 
soever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Now, 
you face one of the most fearful passages in the Word 
of God. You know that this is a passage that all men 
are agreed upon. Jew and Gentile, atheist and belie 7 
er, infidel and Christian, all center here, and stand on 
this platform: "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall 
he also reap." This text would be just as true if yov 



188 Sermons and Sayings. 



Lad found it in Hume's "History of England." This 
is as true now as when God said it. It is true wheth- 
er there is any God or not, or whether there is a 
Leaven or not, or whether there is a hell or not. 
W hether any thing else is true in the moral universe, 
it is true that what a man sows that he shall also reap. 
I have read about that worm that never dies — about 
the fires that are never quenched; but this most fear- 
ful of the pages puts me to forging out the chains 
that shall bind me forever — puts me to incubating 
the egg that shall hatch the worm that shall gnaw 
me forever and ever. This is true in the physical 
world around us. If I go into my field and plant 
grain, from the day the grain drops from my hand 
until I gather it into my crib I do not expect any thing 
but grain. If I sow wheat, I do not expect any thing 
but wheat; if I go into my garden and sow a row of 
lettuce, I expect lettuce. Whatever I sow I reap. 
Then I notice, in examining the physical world, not 
only that every thing pioduces its like, but I want 
you to notice the multiplying nature of seed. A 
preacher of our Conference — a man whose word I 
would take as soon as I would my precious mother's 
— said he saw a seed of oats come up in his garden. 
He removed the weeds, worked around the seed, and let 
it mature. He at last pulled up the single stalk of oats 
and counted the seeds. Eight thousand seven hun- 
dred grains of oats had come from a single grain. 
If you should take these grains and sow them, you 
would get fifty bushels. Take these fifty bushels and 
sow them, and the next year you will have two thou- 
sand bushels. Sow them, and next year you will have 
multiplied your stock prodigiously. By and by w& 



Sekmons and Sayings. 189 



could, by continuing this process, have this world a 
hundred feet deep in oats, and all from one little 
grain. Away back yonder in the garden of Eden- 
Adam dropped one little sin in that garden; and the 
world is full of sin and full of woe, all from one lit- 
tle sin dropped in the garden of Eden. O the mul- 
tiplying nature of seed! Now, we want to say that 
every man in this universe is a seed-sower. "VVe are 
going along through this moral world with a basket 
of moral seed. At every step we scatter the seed to 
the right and to the left — not on these mountains and 
in these valleys, but in human hearts; and they will 
all come up and produce just like the seed we sow. 
When a seed falls from your hand, it is gone forever. 
There is a story of a Catholic woman who went to a 
priest to confess which well illustrates this power of 
reproduction in moral seed. In her confession she 
said, among other things, "I have tattled about my 
neighbors." Said the priest: "Now, go and get a 
basket of thistle-seeds and scatter them along the 
pathway between this and your house." In an hour 
she returned, saying, "I have done my penance." 
"Now, before I absolve you," said the priest, "I want 
you to go and gather up all those seeds and bring 
them back to me." Never, never can you undo the 
mischief you have done in that statement. Once the 
seed falls from your hand, it is gone forever. You 
hear men talk and say, " I have no influence." Well, 
you are a dog if you have not. A man without influ- 
ence is a moral monstrosity and a blank in the uni- 
verse of God. Find me a man in this town without 
influence. Yes, if I were to say to you to-morrow, 
14 You have no influence in this town," you would 



190 Sermons and Sayings. 



feel like knocking me down; but you will lie about it 
yourself. "I have no influence; I am not influencing 
anybody." Every step of your life you are sowing 
seed on your way, and they come up and grow up just 
like the seed you sow. This is the world for sowing; 
yonder is the world for reaping. O my God, what a 
harvest awaits some men who hear my voice to-night! 
Som rt of you men who hear my voice have sowed 
enough seed of evil to damn the world, if it just 
has time enough to propagate itself. A man sows 
on, and the harvest is produced and reproduced. 
T say to you all to-night, you have got men out in 
your cemetery whose sowing curses this city, and will 
curse it as long as it is a city. They are buried, the 
flesh has perished from their bones, but green fields 
are growing to a harvest of damnation all around us. 
They sowed the seed; we reap the harvest. Sow 
whisky, reap drunkards. Do you dispute that? Do 
you deny that proposition? The premise is sound, 
and the logic is as clear as the mind of God. Sow 
whisky, reap drunkards! How many men in your 
city have crossed the line forever? They will die 
drunk as certain as God reigns in heaven. They will 
never stop. Have you ever taken the statistics and 
counted the men who have crossed the line over which 
not one in five thousand ever comes back? They are 
the harvest of the bar-rooms as much as the green 
oats are the harvest of that field you sowed months 
ago. Sow whisky, reap drunkards. Then I will say 
one crop of drunkards is but the seed of another 
crop.- The saddest spectacle of earth is to see a drunk- 
en father who has debauched his body with drink. 
Every child born to such a man is a half drunkard 



Sermons and Sayings. 19 1 



from tlie first breath it draws. If your wife was not 
a sober woman, what would become of your progeny? 
If she was a drunkard, your children would be full- 
fledged drunkards the day they are born. 

There was a young man at Dr. Haygood's school 
who became very dissipated in his habits. His father 
was wealthy, and after many efforts to reform the boy 
he wrote Dr. Hay good, saying: "I am out of patience 
with that boy; he may go to the dogs." Said Dr. 
Haygood: "Come here; I want to talk to you about 
this boy." Dr. Haygood asked him: "Were you not 
a moderate whisky-drinker at the time of this boy's 
birth?" He had to acknowledge he was. "Was not 
your father also a hard drinker, and did not your 
wife's father die a drunkard?" "Yes, it is true." 
Just count up the pedigree, and see that he was the 
result of many generations of drunkards. Here are 
facts; you can't dodge them. You drunkards will 
bring on a crop of drunkards that will curse your 
citv by and by. Fill a town with bar-rooms to prop- 
agate a lot of drunkards who become fathers of drunk- 
ards, and thus the world goes on to death and hell! 
To the father who drinks let me say, Eternal issues 
are in every cup you turn up to your lips. How a 
man can get his consent to drink and see at home a 
poor little innocent child brought into the world halt 
a drunkard, is a profound mystery to me. Poor wretch, 
poor man! Sow whisky, reap drunkards! Now, my 
brethren, on this whisky line I am not fighting men; 
f am fighting whisky. There is where my fight is. 
Some of the biggest men in this city are selling 
thousands of gallons of whisky every week. My 
fight is with that stuff you are dealing in. It damn* 



192 Sekmons and Sayings. 



every t)img it touches. It is cursing my race. There 
is enough whisky in this town to debauch your chil- 
dren for years and years. Hear, you fathers, a mo- 
ment — you drinking fathers: A brother said to me 
that he was down town the other day and walked 
into one of these groceries. They are a peculiar kind 
of grocery: they have the provisions in front and a 
bar-room in the rear — Methodist groceries, Presbyte- 
rian groceries. You can go in to get a pound of soda 
and get a drink without suspicion. Said the propri- 
etor, "Come in and take a glass of lager-beer." He 
walked back, and when the lager-beer was drawn he 
turned it up to his lips. He then noticed for the first 
time his little Willie, frve years old, pulling his finger 
and saying, "Papa, what is that you are drinking?" 
As he walked out of the grocery, he said: "My little 
boy pulled my finger again and said, ' Tell me, papa, 
what was that you were drinking?' On the street he 
asked me again, 'What was that you drank down 
there?'" He said: "I would give almost any thing in 
the world if I could call that back. I am afraid that 
one thing will make a drunkard of my poor little boy." 
Where I was preaching once a young man about 
twenty years old, who was a hard drinker, came to the 
services, and continued to come. The third night he 
turned over and went to sleep. His father got him 
home and put him to bed, and watched him next 
morning, and when he got up said to him : " O my son, 
do not go back to town! Give your heart to God, like 
your father did." "Get out of my way; don't stop 
me here," said the son. "Your poor mother's heart 
is bleeding at every pore. Stop drinking, and give 
your heart to God," said the father. "Do you know, 



Sermons and Sayings. 188 

father, who gave me the fii st drink ? You were the first 
being that ever pressed drink to my lips." The father, 
who is now a steward in the Methodist Church, said: 
" I just turned my poor boy loose. He is drunker to- 
day than he was yesterday." O me! what must that 
father feel ? " Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he 
also reap." Sow whisky, and reap drunkards! T am 
not astonished that you have men in this city wno 
are ruined by whisky, but I am astonished that you 
have not ten drunkards where you have one. It is 
nothing but the prayers of these precious wives and 
mothers clinging to God that keeps these boys all 
from going to dissipation and to ruin. 

There are men in this town who boast that they 
have n't any boys. Their boys are all girls. You are 
not afraid of your children drinking. You keep on 
fooling around, and run that schedule a little longer. 
I will tell you how the devil will get even with you: 
The first thing you know he will pack off half a dozen 
drunken sons-in-law on you. You have got him then, 
haven't you? If you will give the devil a thoiisand 
years, and let him keep busy at it all along, he can't 
beat that. There he sits out there. My, my! if you 
just knew how the father, mother, sisters, and brothers 
of your wife feel, could you just know how they look 
upon you, if you could realize how all your poor wife's 
people look on you, you would think sure enough the 
devil had played a joke on the whole concern. There 
is my daughter, as sweet and pure a girl as ever lived, 
and she lives with a drunkard, and their children are 
half drunkards the day they are born. I would rather 
bury my little girls to-night than for them to have to 
live with drunkards! A drunkard for a son-in-law, 
in 



194 Sermons and Sayings. 



Lord God, help us to stop this sowing! As long as 
you pass it down the line it will produce and repro- 
duce a harvest sufficient to make the devil tremble ! 

Sow profanity, reap profanity. Some of you are 
going around telling that I said the other night 
that a man who swore would steal; but I said ho 
wouldn't steal, and I told you why he wouldn't. 
I am not slandering you, you cursing fellows, but 
defending you — I only told you why you wouldn't 
steal. "Thou shalt not steal." "Thou shalt not 
swear." There is money in one and none in the other. 
I start around stealing and here are sheriffs and chain- 
gangs and court-houses. I say they won't steal — they 
won't. I will die by you You take a cursing man 
and let him have a chance and he will go two miles 
and steal a bee-gum, go a mile farther and steal a 
sheep, and stay with the lowest-down people on the 
road all night. In the war we tried you. If there is 
a fellow here who didn't steal any thing in the war 
let him stand up. If a man will steal in the war why 
not steal at home? Why, he runs up on a sheriff and 
a chain-gang at home. The fellow who will break 
one commandment will break them all if you turn 
him loose. Sow profanity, reap profanity. What 
a harvest of profanity curses this city day by day! 
The saddest sight in the world is to see little bits of 
boys going on the streets cursing. 

Some time ago a woman came up on a train accom- 
panied by her little grandson, and there were two 
men on the train uttering oaths. She heard the sweai- 
ing, and saw the little fellow's attention was drawn to 
it. She pat her fingers in her little grandson's ears. 
''Hold on. grandma; I can't stand that any longer I* 



Sermons and Sayings. 195 



She was forced to appeal to them: "Gentlemen, do 
stop that swearing. In God's name, do not swear any 
more so that my little grandson can hear it!" Sow 
profanity, reap profanity. In a certain town in Geor 
gia there was a father, the most profane man the world 
ever saw — I am touching on you drummers right along 
here — nearly every other word was an oath. He was 
a merchant, and was standing out on the sidewalk 
with a gentleman when his little boy was tripped by 
a passer-by and came near falling. The boy turned 
round to the man who tripped him and swore with the 
volubility of a sailor. The father and the other gen- 
tleman listened to it. "Hear me," said the father: 
"I will never swear another oath while I live. v Be- 
fore that boy was four years old there was the harvest 
of hell. God pity the brute — the human brute — that 
will swear before his child! I don't believe there is 
a hog, a regular old piney-woods razor-back hog down 
in Georgia, low enough to degrade its young in such a 
despicable way as that. You ought to have been in 
hell, sir, before you had a child born to you! Sow 
profanity, reap profanity. Now, we are going on logic. 
You can't dodge it to save your life. 

Sow cards, reap gamblers. Do you know that 
nine gamblers in every ten were reared in Christian 
families? Theve is not a more polite, well-bred 
set of men in this city than the gamblers. Now 
listen to me, bi other: You sow cards in your family, 
and you will reap gamblers. Some of you old Bap- 
tists, Methodists, and Presbyterians have had cai ds in 
your families, and you think your boy is the betfc fel- 
low in town. The police raided him last nigh , and 
he was around asking the reporters *"o keep his nam" 



1116 Hermons an£> Sayisus. 



out of the papers. God help us to stop rearing 
gamblers in Christian families ! You go and get that 
deck of cards that is in your house and burn it up. 
No harm in cards! You train that boy if you play. 
By and by he will have to put up a little to make it 
interesting, and then because he wants to win some- 
thing; and on and on he goes, taught by Christian 
father and mother to play. He plays on and on, till 
finally he loses his last dollar. He watches which 
room the winner goes to, slips into the room, draws a 
dagger from his belt, walks forward in the pale glare 
of the moon, and drives it into the bosom of his vic- 
tim! That boy was reared in a Christian home. His 
father taught him how to draw that dagger to take 
that man's life. 

Progressive eucher! That is the spiclerleg game. 
There is not a spiderleg in this town who does n't play 
progressive eucher; and he thinks it is a charming 
game! If there were no harm in playing cards in this 
universe, I have a contempt for a man who has got 
time to do it. You old cymling-headed goose, you 
never read five hundred pages of a solid book in your 
life, and here you are playing cards, and your old 
mother has to give you money to get shaved! A bar- 
ber in this town said: "I am so glad Mr. Jones hit 
the spiderlegs. I want them to come up and pay me; 
and all of them owe me." I can't describe the spider- 
legs, but every day or two I meet one, ind could show 
him to you. He looks as if he had been melted and 
poured into his breeches. He thinks progressive eu- 
chei is a magnificent game. And the german, sir; O 
he is a sight on a german! I would as soon see a shag- 
gy Scotch terrier with his paws around my daugh- 



Sermons and Sayings. ltf? 



ter as to see a spiderleg with her. I have some choice 
as to who shall hug my daughter, and you, sir, shall 
not have that privilege. Now, boys, don't get mad, 
or somebody will call you a spiderleg. If I were you 
I would rather a preacher would skin me than to call 
me a spiderleg. If you sow cards, you reap gamblers. 
This is just as legitimate a result. It is just as natural 
as that Irish potatoes will produce Irish potatoes. If 
I sow whisky, I will reap drunkards; if I sow cards, I 
will reap gamblers; if I sow profanity, I will reap 
profanity; if I sow germans, I will reap spiderlegs. 
"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." 
Sow your cards, you will reap your gamblers. Never 
have it said, my brethren, after this hour, that any 
Christian family turned out a gambler from his home. 
The twenty-two-year-old son of a mother in Chatta- 
nooga came in after supper and said: "Mamma, get 
the cards, you and sister, and let us take a game." 
"Son," said she, "I heard a sermon to-day that set- 
tled me on this subject. Mr. Jones asked us mothers 
to pray for you poor boys who waste your time on 
cards." "Sister, won't you take a game with me?" 
"No, brother; I heard that sermon too, and I am done 
forever." That mother sent her boy to the meeting, 
and God sent him back to virtue. I like that. All 
you that sow billiards will reap pools. Show me a 
man that is a frequenter of billiard-rooms, and I hold 
him up between me and that gas-light and read one 
word written all over him — Failure. I never in my 
life saw a first-class billiard-player who was worth 
the powder and lead it would take to kill him. Now, 
what do you say? You are not half a mile from a 
gambJing-hell when you stop at a billiard-saloon. ] 



198 . Sermons and Sayings. 



never was mean and low down enough, morally, to 
play billiards. Some of these so-called Christian 
households have got billiard-tables in them. When- 
ever I can't run my home without cards and billiard- 
tables, I want to see all my family buried. You men 
come out of there, or in less than ten years from to- 
day you will be ruined. Where are those boys who 
stood around those tables ten years ago ? Look at sta- 
tistics, names, and dates, and quit forever. Will you? 

There is another thing - Tennessee is a sight on, 
and that is horse- racing. There is many a fellow 
in this country riding a blooded horse to hell. May 
be you think that beats walking. Now, my fellow- 
citizens, let me say right at this point that I believe I 
love a noble horse better than I do any thing else, un- 
less it is a noble woman. There is nothing grander 
than a grand horse. I do n't care if he can run it in 
a minute, I do n't want to go to horse-races. It is be- 
cause you fellows have taken the noblest animal and 
disgraced him by pool-selling. Give us fast horses, 
and let us drive them, but keep away those fellows 
who want to pull out their pocket-books and bet some- 
thing. You are wrong side up; you need inverting. 
To bet on a thing is the best idea you have. If you 
will get out of that spring, I would like to take a drink; 
but I do n't like it with such a hog as you wallowing in 
it A fellow is not obliged to eat the hog because he 
doesn't like the water. He that sows betting on 
horse-races reaps gambling. What we see around us 
to-night is the legitimate fruit of the sowing of the 
last forty years in this city. 

I have already talked about an hour, or a little 
more. I want you to hear me through. Now, I want 



Sermons and Sayings. 199 



you, m} fellow-citizens, to-night, to go away from here 
with something to think over, and something that will 
be as a spring-board to yon to leap up into a higher 
and better life. Yon fathers, give me your ear a mo- 
ment. What a grand sight it is to see a husband take 
the wife by the hand, and the wife take the oldest 
child, and the oldest the next, and so on, and march 
on to the good world; but O how sad to see the same 
procession approach the river of death, and all leap 
in and float off to death and hell! There are men 
here to-night who, every step they take, are leading 
their wives and children down to hell with them. 
Here is a picture: A father going down through the 
snow to feed his hogs, his little Willie called to him, 
"May I go with you, papa?" Directly the father 
turned around and saw the little fellow coming. Fi- 
nally, "Papa," he says, "I am putting my tracks in 
your tracks;" and the little boy's voice rang out re- 
verberatingly, "My tracks in your tracks;" and the 
father said, "Yes, that is true in more senses than 
one." The boy puts his tracks in the father's tracks, 
whether they are going to heaven or hell. Which 
way are yoi leading your children? What shall the 
harvest be? 



200 Sermons and Sayings. 



SAYINGS. 

You dance and drink with this world, and you will 
go to hell with this world. 

That mother sent her boy to the meeting, and God 
sent him back to virtue and honor. 

Efd liquor and Christianity won't stay in the same 
hide. As one comes in, the other goes out. 

If such a crowd as this were to attend prayer-meet- 
ing, you would scare your pastor out of his wits. 

If any man does n't like what I say, let him come to 
me after the meeting and say so, and I will — forgive 
him. 

Sow whisky, reap drunkards. Fill a town with bar- 
rooms, make a generation of drunkards who become 
fathers of drunkards, whose children are born drunk- 
ards, and thus the world is swept on and down to hell. 

It takes grace, grit, and greenbacks to run a meet- 
ing. God will furnish the grace, but it is our busi- 
ness to furnish the grit and the greenbacks. I can 
furnish the grit, you the greenbacks. I like a division 
of labor. 

It is absolutely impossible for a man to practice 
successfully a fraud upon his immortality. If you 
are a good man, you know it; if you are a bad man, 
you know it. God breaks the silence of eternity to 
bring you face to face with what you are, who you are 
and whither you are going. 



SERMON XIV. 
Turn Ye. 

"Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, G 
bouse of Israel?" (Ezekiel xxxiii. 11.) 

RETHREN, there is a good deal at stake to- 
night. If ever I craved the prayers of Chris- 
tian people and the help of the Divine Spirit, it 
is now and here. Help me by your prayers to-night. 
Let every man take heed how he hears. It is the time 
now for concentration. We must focalize on some- 
thing. We must decide something; and in order that 
we do that, I am going to take a very short text; and 
I shall discuss it as tersely as I possibly can. I will 
take one word, and that word is turn. We get that 
word from this text: " Turn ye, turn ye from your evil 
ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" We 
find that word again in the connection, "If he turn 
not, he will whet his sword." This expression, " God 
will whet his sword " — there is a world in this figura- 
tive expression of David, " God will whet his sword." 
A sword is a weapon that we use in a hand-to-hand 
combat. If there is much distance between the com- 
batants, the sword is useless. It is when men rush 
right up and fight hand to hand and face to face that 
a sword is used. " If he turn not, he will whet his 
sword." The thought underlying <that expression ia 
about this: Every moment of your life, every sin of 
your life, every day of your life, every utterance of 
your life, every act of rebellion, every moment and 

(201) 



202 Sermons and Sayings. 



every second, God is right where he can put his hand 
on you. He will whet his sword. No enemy in the 
distance, no ocean between me and this uplifted sword, 
but right at me, all over me, all about me. 

"If he turn not, he will whet his sword." I know 
it is an unpopular theory in this nineteenth century 
that God will punish sin. The predominating strain 
of the pulpit fifty years ago, one hundred years ago, 
was one of terror. Men preached the book — they did 
not defend the book; they preached Christ — they did 
not defend Christ; they preached hell and heaven — 
one as topless, the other as bottomless. The effeminate 
Christianity of the present day is largely due to the 
thought that God will not reward righteousness, and 
that he will not punish sin. This is to fly in the face 
of every page in the book. I know that God is love; I 
know that God is merciful and long-suffering ; I know 
that God is gentle; I know that God is good, that his 
great heart goes out as the benefactor of the race; but 
I also know that God is terribly and inflexibly just, 
and the sinner shall not go unpunished. Every down- 
ward step is testimony to the fact that sin carries with 
it its own punishment, and punishment will last as 
long as sin will last. The man who sinned twenty 
years ago — are you delivered from it to-night? Are 
you relieved of the guilt caused by an act done twenty 
years ago? In one short hour we will commit a deed 
tl iat shall haunt us to our graves, and go into eternity 
with us. Kepent, turn away from sin. We wish to 
follow this line. Things will clear up as we go along. 
We will sacrifice every thing to clearness except truth. 
I want to turn this word over and over, and bathe L 
in a sea of light. A man must turn away from sin in 



Sekmons and Sayings. &Qh 



a business-like way as you turned away from your 
front gate to-night to come here. You must turn 
away from your sin. It is no sham repentance — no 
mock turning away from your sin — it must be an act- 
ual, business-like turning away from sin. Here is a 
merchant who has lost in business year after year. 
Finally, when he takes stock, he says, "One more 
year will bankrupt me." He sells out his stock, buys 
a farm, and goes to work on it. Just as natarally and 
really, and just in that business sense, the si oner takes 
stock, and says: "Look here, sin is ruining me. I 
have been following this thing ten, twenty, thirty years, 
and I am getting bankrupt. One more year may 
bankrupt me. I will close out this business, lock, 
stock, and barrel." And now, as a profane swearer 
you must quit swearing as truly and really as any 
man ever quit merchandising and went to farming. 
You have got to quit gambling as much as you left 
your home to come to this place You have got to quit 
your licentiousness, and get away from it as complete- 
ly as my hand is away when I take it off of this post. 
You must say in a business-like way, "I turn away 
from these things." " If there is any thing, Mr. Jones, 
that is cursing humanity in the world, it is the gam- 
bling-hells," said a man to me the other day. He said* 
" I know what I am talking about. I have come to 
talk to you on this subject. I know with all the fear- 
ful realizations that any man ever had what gam- 
bling will do for a man. My own' brother led a gam- 
bler's life, and he went on and on in this life until he 
ended his career by jumping into the Mississippi 
River. He is in eternity — a gambler and a suicide. I 
have gambled night after night and week after week. 



204 Sermons and Sayings. 



I have seen my wife in tears, and my children crying 
for bread. I know what I am talking about. I have 
been to the very edge of eternal despair. I have 
come to God. I have turned my back forever on this 
sin, and God owns me as his child, and has forgiven 
my sin, and promises to help me to a better life." 
How did he turn? He gave it up forever. "Well," 
says a man, "I gamble, I drink, I swear, I do this, 
that, and the other; I can't give it up." I know how 
hard it is to quit drinking. I know what I am talking 
about. I know that it costs something to give up the 
many great sins that a man is guilty of. With all the 
earnestness of my soul I tell you any thing is better 
than being damned. A fellow says: " There is no use 
in my trying to do right; I have such a violent tem- 
per." I would rather have a bad temper in heaven 
than a bad temper in hell. I tell you, brethren of the 
ministry, what is cursing many a man who hears my 
voice to-night. He is compromising with the devil. 
He will let you be a right good fellow if you will give 
him halter enough. Says one: "There is one thing I 
am settled on — I will never curse any more." You 
black-mouthed blasphemer, you ought never to have 
sworn an oath! You go up to the bar of God and say: 
"In the year 1885 I quit cursing; now let me in." 
You deserve no credit for that. " I am settled on it 
that I will never sell another drink of whisky." 
There are people in this city and in hell who will 
never get over it. There are men in this town who 
say, " If I knew what to do with my whisky, I would 
give it up and give myself to God." Let me tell you 
my sentiments to the bottom of my heart: I would 
rather be in heaven with the consciousness that I 



Sermons and Sayings. 205 



poured five thousand dollars' worth of whisky in the 
Cumberland River than to be in hell with the whisky- 
barrels sitting around me. There are men in this 
town with five thousand dollars' worth of whisky, and 
do not know what to do with it. You can go and 
empty it into the Cumberland River, and then be worth 
more than I will ever be worth in this world. Turn 
the liquid fire of damnation loose in the river! That 
is a good idea. Another fellow will say, "I am going 
to quit drinking." Yes; you ought to have a thousand 
lashes for the way you have treated your wife and 
children! Now you are going to sober up and walk 
into heaven, just because you made your wife miserable 
for ten years. You are a sight, ain't you? " I am all 
right; I have done stopped drinking." Thank God, 
you are going to quit forever! You cannot claim any 
thing from God simply on the score that you have quit 
drinking. Some of the meanest old sinners in this 
town never touched a drop in their lives. " I am never 
going to dance any more; I have given up dancing." 
Now, if you had not been light in the upper story, you 
never would have danced at all. Now, because you have 
acted silly and quit, you think you ought to get into 
heaven. "I have played my last game of cards." 
God pity you that you ever got low down enough to play 
at all! You can't claim any thing because you have 
quit one or two little things. Sin is a disease just as 
truly as small-pox is a disease. When a fellow curses, 
it has broken out on his tongue. Take some salvo 
and cure it on his tongue, and it will break out somo- 
where else. It will break out on his hand, and he will 
steal something. When a fellow says, "I have quil 
drinking," the first thing you know he is gambling 



206 Sermons and Sayings. 



Sin is a disease. It is but the outward eruption from 
a terrible inward disease. We do n't want any salve 
to spread on a fellow, but we want a blood remedy to 
spread on him to make a new man of him through 
and through — not salves and ointments, but a grand 
old God-given constitution. Some of you have run 
down your constitutions, and have been living on the 
by-laws about twenty -five years. Many an old sinner 
has got no constitution. The devil undermined the 
whole thing. He has a few by-laws he and the devil 
passed at a meeting once, and he is innning on them. 
Kepenting of my sins means I turn my back actually 
and really on these things because they are wrong, 
and I seek a better and higher life. A man must not 
only turn from the thing that is wrong, but it must 
be a hearty turning away from that sin. I am hardly 
metaphysician enough to go into definitions along 
here; but I can say this: The heart is the seat 
of the affections. When we say a hearty turning 
away from sin, we mean we turn from the wrong to- 
ward the right with all the heart. It is the blowing 
out of the candles of sin in the soul, and leaving it 
dark till God comes. " My heart is sick about this mat- 
tor. I feel bad over it. I hate the wrong. I would 
love the right." I love to see a man put his soul into 
the desire to be saved, put himself into the desire to 
be saved — a hearty turning away from sin. It is my 
head and heart and soul. I turn all these away from 
sin and toward the right. Let the wicked man for- 
sake his sin and come 1 i God, and he will abundantly 
pardon. It must not only be an actual, business-like 
turning away from sin, but it mast be an humiliate 
turning away from sin. Every fellow here has s r etled 



Seemons and Sayings. 207 



it tliat he is not going to die without religion. If 
there is a man here who has deliberately made up his 
mind to brave the terrors of damnation, I want him to 
stand up. Is there one candidate for hell here to- 
night? Now, my fellow-citizens, there is a point right 
here. No man is satisfied with himself who is not a 
Christian. Every fellow has made up his mind that 
he is going to be religious. Men are religious just 
as they are honest. "I know I owe you that fifty- 
dollar note, but I ain't going to pay it now. I say I 
OAve it, and will pay you; therefore I am honest. I 
am going to be religious; therefore I am religious 
because I am going to be." It is strange how the 
devil can blindfold and bamboozle a man right along. 
I believe in this thing Brother Witherspoon spoke 
of — the last chance. The saddest time in the his- 
tory of the soul is when the Lord Jesus Christ has 
passed that way for the last time. I want to get you, 
my fellow-citizens, to say this to-night: that as you 
have lived to the present time, and are meeting these 
present opportunities and privileges, you will not let 
the time slip by. If you say to-morrow — Pharaoh 
said it, and the last we heard of him he was at the 
bottom of the Ked Sea. When I stood at my father's 
bedside twelve years ago and more, and with his 
bony hand in mine, and looking him in the face, 
said, "I will turn away from sin," I believe that if I 
had not turned away I should have slighted my last 
chance, and been in hell this moment. I am just as 
fully persuaded in my own mind that some men who 
hear my voice to-night have their last chance. I said 
in Knoxville: "I am profoundly impressed that there 
is a man in this congregation who will soon render an 



208 Sermons and Sayings. 



account to God for the way in which he hears this 
sermon." That night a man went to the altar, and 
was converted and made a happy man living or dy- 
ing. Last Thursday evening, about three weeks 
after I left the city, this man clapped his hands to- 
gether and said, " It is the truth, but thank God I am 
off for a better world than this! " 

I frequently get letters after I am gone, saying: "Do 
you recollect Mr. So and So in whom we were so much 
interested? He died yesterday." God prepare the 
man who is to die first, and may he be the man who 
will first give himself to God to-night! Only two or 
three more steps and you are in the grave, and you 
may take one of them before I am through preaching 
to-night. Every one of us can turn to-night, but I 
would not go any man's security that he can turn to- 
morrow. I know what you think: "I am not ready 
yet." The devil goes on perfectly satisfied with a man 
who says, "I think by Sunday I will come in." In 
fact, there is but one kind that engages his majesty's 
attention, and that is the fellow who cries out, "Now, 
now I give myself to God!" "I am not ready yet!" 
For what? There is many a fellow trying to wash 
himself up so that he can come in respectably. That 
is something like the porter in the sleeping-car dust- 
ing a fellow off ten miles before he is at his journey's 
end. When he gets there he will be dustier than ever. 
The hardest thing for a man to do is to give himself 
to God just as he is. I cannot do myself any good. 
There is many a fellow out with a whitewash-brush 
at work trying to get himself cleaned up respectably 
so he can come in. He said all the time he was about 
as good as anybody in the Church. When you get 



Sermons and Sayings. 209 



him up he says, "I am not fit." The devil makes 
him jump on the other side of the fence. O how 
many just such cases there are in my presence to- 
night! The reason you have not come in is because 
you thought you were not all right. You are the very 
fellow the Lord is looking for. You are the one. 
Many a fellow in this country is sitting at 1?he table, 
and his wife says, "Help yourself, husband." "No,*' 
he says, "I am waiting till my appetite is appeased." 
He is sitting, there waiting for his appetite to get ap- 
peased before he eats! If his wife should summon a 
jury to try him, they would say his mind is giving 
way. He comes to the table and won't eat. He is 
waiting for his hunger to depart. Just so you say, 
"I want to get all right so I can go to God all right." 
You will be waiting a million years. God alone can 
make the sinner right. No sinner ever made himself 
right. I wish I could have every man say this: "Live 
or die, survive or perish, I start to-night!" Come up 
and take these seats and say: "Other men may make 
promises, but I close this bargain to-night; and live 
or die, I will serve my God alone." You have n't any 
time to lose. There are men who hear my voice this 
moment who if they put in their best licks till they 
die will just barely make it. How many more days 
do you want to spend in rebellion against God? I 
have been thinking of that little boy who ran to the 
train. Just as he reached the platform the train 
moved off and left him. He stood there panting and 
watching the train, now in the distance. A man said 
to him, "You didn't run fast enough." "No," said 
the boy, "I ran with all my might, but I didn't make 
it because I didn't start soon enough " Many a man 
14 



210 Sermons and Sayings. 



will rush up and find the gates closed, ind say, like 
the boy, "I didn't start soon enough." 

I often think of the girl who heard the preacher say, 
"This maybe your last chance." As she took her 
young man's arm — not he took her arm. That arm- 
clutch ! I wish I had about five minutes on that arm- 
clutch. It doesn't argue that a girl is not virtuous 
if you see her with a boy's arm clutched in hers; but 
I tell you one thing, he ain't. One or the other lacks 
virtue — may be both. "He that thinketh on these 
things hath already become unclean in his heart." I 
would lock my daughter up in the cellar and keep her 
there six months if I ever could see a spiderleg a-hold 
of her arm. The girl is perhaps virtuous, but she 
has a mighty low-down, groveling sense of propriety; 
and the boy — I would n't trust him as far as I could 
throw this house. Kemember that, young lady, the 
next time he grabs you. I was told the other day by 
a friend that he saw two men walking on the street, 
and meeting a girl one of them grabbed her arm 
and walked off with her. He said the other fel- 
low, who was some distance behind, looked like me. 
Seeing me, as he thought, the arm-clutcher released 
the girl and disappeared around a corner. Young 
lady, listen! I love your character, and your virtue, 
and your high reputation; but, in the name of God, 
make these boys keep their hands to themselves! Say 
to them, " You must never lay your hand on my per- 
son." This is business, young ladies. Well, she took 
his arm, and they walked off. She asked him, " What 
made the preacher say the last time — the last time?" 
The young man said, "I don't know." "Well, it 
darted through my soul like a dart from tho eternal 



Sermons and Sayings. 211 



world." When she walked up on the steps at her 
home, she said: "That rings through my soul — the last 
time! I would give the world if the preacher had not 
said it." She was taken sick. Her father called a 
physician ; but at one o'clock the next day she breathed 
her last, saying, " The last time ! " God pity the young 
man who throws away his last chance for heaven! 
Your only safety is in an immediate turning away 
from sin. Thank God, there is a minute in every 
man's life — and with hundreds of men that minute is 
right now — when a man can surrender to God and 
quit his sin! It must be not only an immediate but a 
thorough turning away from sin. It is giving up all 
sin. I scattered mine along for about a week, until 
at last I said I would end the whole matter; and I 
walked to the back of the wagon and dumped out 
corn, sack, and all, and drove off for heaven and eter- 
nal life. One sin in a man's life, like a leak in a ship, 
will sink him before he reaches the other shore, It 
is the giving up of every sin, and forever. I am so 
glad the Lord said, "Down with all your sins!" I 
do n't know a sin of my past life that would not L?ve 
ruined me if God had let me keep it; but he said, 
" Throw them all overboard." 

In the last place, it is an eternal giving up of sin. 
An old man of sixty years said: "I wouldn't mind 
being religious for ten years, if that will take me to 
heaven." I said to him: "You may be in hell before 
Christmas, and here you are quibbling with God! " I 
am willing to live religious not only ten years, if that 
will take me to heaven; but I am in for the war. *I will 
go through, God helping me, for this life. It is com- 
ing away from and giving up all that is wrong. It ie 



212 Sermons and Sayings. 



walking right up and sticking to the good, and th$ 
true, and the noble. It is an eternal sticlcability, if 1 
may use that word. I tell you, I could have had a 
hundred fights after joining the Church if I had not 
got religion. " Sam, I am so glad that you have joined 
the Church. I hope you will stick. I hope you will 
stick." They ran that thing on me until I would not 
meet a fellow. I will stick — stick to it to the end. I 
don't reckon there ever was a man who started to 
heaven with as little " stickability " as I had. I am a 
living demonstration that any man who wants to stick 
can stick. The Bible says, " Cleave to that which is 
good." We get that idea at the cabinet-maker's shop. 
Two blocks of wood are glued together. You cannot 
split them where they are glued. You may break off 
pieces, but they stick at the point where the glue is. 
The devil may come in with his chisel and mallet and 
chip off every thing, but I will stick well at the point 
where I am glued. If there is an inch or half an 
inch of me left, it will stick there until the world 
burns up. I hope you will stick! I hope every 
man of you will take his position in this meeting foi 
God, and will stick until God says: "It is enough; 
come up higher." I will tell you the way to stick, if you 
want to know: You just take hold with a grip that 
means, "I am here to stay." Do not take your hands 
off to receive what the devil offers you. The devil is 
on both sides of you with all sorts of things to tempt 
you. It is always in turning aside to receive some- 
thing that the devil wants to give you that you lose 
your > grip. We have it in a word: Quit it in an actual, 
business-like way. Walk off from it. 
In the next place, it is a hearty giving up— an im- 



Sermons and Sayings. 213 



mediate giving up, and now and forever. It is a thor- 
ough giving up. There is not a sin in life that I have 
not turned loose. I will turn them loose forever, and 
sit here till God comes. Now, a word as to the neces- 
sity, and I will quit. A man has got to give up or do 
worse — one or the other. A man said to me once: 
"Why, sir, if I give up now, I will lose every thing 
I have." I will tell you: this thing was illustrated 
once by a man who came to service and was power- 
fully convicted. His wife tried to get him up to the 
altar, but she could not. When they got home she 
asked him, "Why did you not go up?" "I wanted to 
go there, wife, but I can't get religion in the business 
I am in." He was a bar-keeper. "It is giving up too 
much; I can't afford it." "Husband," said she, "how 
much money do you clear a year with your bar?" 
"Two thousand dollars." "How long do you think 
you will live to run that bar ? " " I ought to live about 
twenty years." "How much is two thousand dollars 
a year for twenty years? " " Forty thousand dollars," 
said he. "Now, if a man were to walk in the door 
right now and say, 'I will give you forty thousand 
dollars for your hope of going to heaven,' what would 
you say to him? " "No! By the grace of God, I will 
close in the morning. I will give myself to God righ+ 
now." I know what it is to be converted below the 
level, in the mud. The devil had bankrupted me un- 
til I was ruined for all worlds. I not only had no mon- 
ey to give up, but I had no money with which to pay 
my debts. I started out on that line. I went immedi- 
ately to preaching. I went down to the North Geor- 
gia Conference, and my great thought was, "Will the 
Bishop take me in? " I was glad when they read out 



214 Sermons and Sayings. 



my name. The Bishop said to me: "Jones, do you 
know ho\s much that circuit paid last year? It paid 
only sixty-five dollars." I never thought about the 
pay. I j^st thought in my heart of God, and I only 
wanted a place to go to work. I worked around there 
awhile. I rented a house, and gave my note for one 
hundred and twenty dollars. I preached a few rounds, 
and an old steward said: "I like you, Jones. You are 
a clevei young man; but you will starve here." I 
said, " If I can't do any better, I will board with the 
scholars this year." I worked the best I could until 
the first of April, when things got very squally and 
very shaky, and every thing gave out all at once. 
Wife said that she had put the last bite on the table. 
I said: "Wife, I have done my level best. Let us 
tough it out; and if we starve to death, let us make 
out that we died of typhoid fever." That evening I 
was out cutting stove-wood. I do n't know why, for we 
had nothing to cook. In a little while up drove a wag- 
on, and when it left I had more rations in my house 
than I ever had before or have had since. When a 
poor fellow gave himself to God and was thrown out of 
a job, a Christian man came forward, and said, "I will 
pay his rent for a year." God will help you in every 
way, if you will give yourself to him. No man has a 
darker past or a brighter twelve years to look back 
upon than I have. I am only sorry for the meanness 
I did before that. I am sorry that there are so many 
of you clever men holding back. Hundreds of these 
clever men have not been converted; but when you go 
to them they say, " To-morrow; next week." Let every 
man that is not a Christian start to-night for glory 
and for God. Won't vou? 



Sermons and Sayings. 215 



A word about the means of this turning. The only 
means you need are already supplied to you. Given 
the Spirit to move you, grace to sustain you, and you 
can start out with the consciousness that you can 
go through with this tide. A Georgia preacher re- 
lated this incident to me: " I was brought up near the 
beach of the ocean. We lived up on the hill-side in 
sight of the beach. One morning I saw a grand old 
ship that had been swept up on the beach by the storm 
in the night. After breakfast I went and looked all 
through and over that old ship. I have been on that 
ship often. I have sat and watched the high tide — 
the spring-tide — go in and surround the ship and rise 
higher and higher. ' O do, poor old ship, go out to 
sea! ' I have said; and I would look out again, and see 
that the tide had gone out and left the old ship high 
and dry. I have seen the tide flow out and come in 
and in until the old ship would quiver and tremble as 
if about to float away. 'Do go to sea,' said I to the 
old ship,' or you will crumble to pieces;' but the tide 
would go out and leave the ship still aground. Final- 
ly one morning, sure enough that old ship had crum- 
bled into ten thousand pieces, and was swept off for- 
ever." Your wife has stood by and seen the high tide 
come in often, and the preacher said, "Old ship, go 
out to sea!" To-night it is up and around you, and 
you quiver and tremble under the pressure of the tide 
of love that sweeps around you. If you do not go 
out, you will be stranded forever on the beach of eter- 
nal despair. God help us to turn loose, and go out 
with this tide and enter the haven of eternal rest! 
Will you consent to-night to give your heart to God 
and start? Now, I want every man here assembled 



216 Sermons and Sayings. 



who lias made up his mind to repent — I want you to 
start to-night. Let us gather by these benches and 
say: "I want to repent; I do repent. I want to give 
myself to God to-night." You that say "I never in- 
tend to repent" are not asked to stay to this after- 
service. Let us make friends with God and heaven. 
Thank God, you may, you can, you will! 



SAYINGS. 

It is not asking much of you to ask you to believe 
on the Lord Jesus Christ. I believed on him for 
twenty-five years; but I did not believe on him as 
much as the devil did. He believed and trembled; I 
believed and went on drinking. 

Conscience! Thank God for every cultivated, en- 
lightened conscience on the face of the earth! But 
the saddest sight in this world is an outraged con- 
science that has been debauched by sin until it is 
dead, and seared as with a hot iron. 

There is many a fellow out with a whitewash-brush 
hard at work trying to clean himself up so that he 
can come in respectably. He said all the time that 
he was about as good as anybody in the Church; but 
when he got waked up he began to apply the white- 
wash. 

Fifty years ago men preached the book — they did 
nut defend the book; they preached Christ — they 
did not defend Christ; they preached heaven and 
hell — the one topless, the other bottomless. Not the 
effeminate Christianity of the present day — that God 
will not take the righteous to heaven nor send the 
wicked to hell. 



Sermons and Sayings. 217 



When your little cup is full, you can just back out. 

That arm-clutch! I wish I had about five minutes 
on that arm-clutch. It doesn't argue that a girl is 
not virtuous if you see her with a boy's arm clutched 
in hers; but what of the boy? One or the other 
lacks virtue — may be both. The girl may be virtuous, 
but she has a very low-down, groveling sense of pro- 
priety. "He that thinketh on these things hath 
already become unclean in his heart." Young lady, 
listen! I love your character and your virtue, and 
want you to be as pure as the driven snow; but you 
must make these boys keep their hands to themselves. 
Hands off, gentlemen! 




SERMON XV. 
1 Thought on My Ways. 

\ thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies. 
I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments. (Psalm 
cxix. 59, 60.) 

E invite your attention to the fifty-ninth and 
sixtieth verses of the one hundred and nine- 
f teenth Psalm: "I thought on my ways, and 
turned my feet unto thy testimonies. I made haste, 
and delayed not to keep thy commandments." The 
most interesting study in the world is the process by 
which the soul reaches God. Christianity may have 
its conditions, its terms of discipleship, but, breth- 
ren, sometimes we bring the means of grace just on 
the outside of the bar. The grand old gospel ship — ■ 
you must bring her right into the harbor, and throw 
out your gang-plank and let men walk aboard. That 
is it. The process by which the soul reaches God, 
the most interesting, and withal the most difficult to 
explain, because we go out of the temporal and into 
the spiritual. There are about three steps nobody 
can go with you. It is only about three steps. It is 
only about a moment that the soul seems to be alone. 
Neither wife, nor man, nor angel can go with you; and 
yet about three steps bring you into company with 
angels and God, a happy man. David was one of the 
wisest teachers in spiritual things who ever lived, 
except Christ. David had studied himself until he 
knew himself; he had studied this world until he un- 
(21 M 



Sermons and Sayings. 219 



derstood it; he had studied God. The preacher who 
knows most of God and humanity is the preacher who 
stands most successfully between God and man, and 
will most successfully bring the two together. David 
had a deep, thorough insight into human nature. 
Now he stands between God and man, and tells us 
how he reaches God. He says: "I thought on my 
ways." There is no such thing as improvement in 
life without it is based on intelligent, honest thought. 
A man who does not think is a man whom you never 
know how to locate. He is with the current, and 
changes with it. A thoughtless man is in a sense a 
very innocent man. A man who thinks is a religious 
man of the highest type, if he thinks rightly. A 
man who thinks wrongly is a very dangerous charac- 
ter in any community. 

" I thought on my ways." There is something prac- 
tical about this. I thought about how I live. You 
know a man is nothing but a bundle of ways. You 
often hear it said, "I like So and So, but I don't like 
his ways." This is the most nonsensical expression 
you can use. That fellow is nothing but a bundle of 
ways. 

" I thought on my ways." I do n't say I thought 
on the world's ways, or on the ways of the Church, 
or on my children's ways, but on my ways. If you 
ever think practically and to your benefit, you will 
think about your own ways. It is very easy to pick a 
flaw in Brother A. and Brother B. in the Church and 
in the town. It is mighty easy to see the flaws and 
foibles of others; but you have an interesting study 
when you begin to look at yourself. You hear that' 
U I thought on my ways." "There is a way which 



220 Sermons and Sayings. 



seenieth right unto a man, but the end thereof are 
the ways of death." There never was a man who prac- 
ticed one sin and let all the others alone. Sin goes in 
schools like fish, and it is astonishing how they multi- 
ply on your hands. A man commences by drinking, 
then he swears, and finally consorts with company 
that disgraces him. He breaks out in a little pimple 
at first, and now he is broken out all over with the dis- 
ease. About eighteen hundred years ago there was a 
voice heard, which said, "I am the way." I will say 
another thing: There is a high way and a holy way, 
and the man who misses that way is in the ways of 
death. I go there to that railroad track; I look at the 
steel rails and at the ties. I never saw a railroad be- 
fore in my life. I do n't know what it is. I wonder 
what this thing is for; I am going to try it. I go and 
get my wheelbarrow and roll it along about ten steps, 
and it convinces me that this track was not made for 
a wheelbarrow. That won't do; I will try something 
else. I am going to find out what it is laid down here 
for. I get a wagon, and I do n't drive five steps till I 
see this was not made for a wagon. I wonder what it 
was made for. I poke around till I strike the round- 
house where the locomotive-engines are. I look at 
these iron monsters, and I say, " I never saw any thing 
like these;" and I measure the flange on the wheel, 
its proportion and distances. I say, " I believe I will 
take this out on that track; I believe it will fit it." I 
roll that engine out, and I say, " That engine was made 
for that track, and that track was made for the en- 
gine." The steam-gauge dances at one hundred and 
sixty pounds to the square inch. The engineer pulls 
the throttle, and now we are going with the velocity of 



Sekmons and Sayings. 221 



the wind. I find adaptability here. This thing was 
made for the track, and this track was made for it 
Christ says, "I am the way." I will try a calf on the 
way. I do n't lead my calf five steps until I see that 
the calf was not made for that track. I try a horse, 
and I do n't lead him ten steps until I lead him aside. 
I take a view of this moral way, this high way, this 
better way, this grand way. I measure the soul in all 
of its distances and proportions. I say, "I believe 
that way was made for my soul;" and I take my soul 
and bring it up on that way, arid when my soul is once 
on that way how grandly it runs into glory! You see 
that engine as it pulsates with power, and the long 
train of cars drawn along to their destination. Did 
you ever see an engine off the track? It can't turn a 
wheel, much less pull a car. It is the most helpless 
thing you ever looked at in your life. Did you ever 
try an engine on a dirt-road? It does n't run five rev- 
olutions till it is stuck fast; and you can't get it out 
without jack-screws under it. But put it on the track, 
and it is one of the most powerful things your eyes 
ever looked at. Here is a high way and a holy way 
made for me, and I am made for it. I will try the 
dirt-road of profanity. I do n't go a mile until I am 
muddy all over, and mired down, and make mighty 
poor headway. I will try the dirt-road of licentious- 
ness. I run my soul out on that road a few feet, and 
I am covered with guilt and shame and ignominy. I 
will try the dirt-road of infidelity. I do n't run five 
feet until I am mired down. I would rather have 
been^barn a 'possum than an infidel. The dirt-road 
of infidelity is soft, rotten, and dark under me, and 
every foot brings me into deeper darkness, and I sooi> 



222 Sermons and Sayings. 



head up against a wall that no man ever climbed over. 
That won't do, brethren. I will run out on the dirt- 
road of a german, for instance, and get hugged, and 
go home. That is as far as you can get on that road. 
T will switch off on the side-track of a bucket-shop, 
and run that awhile. A brother tells his experience 
on that track. You get one foot mired, and as you 
try tc get it out the other gets deeper in the mire. 
Let us take the dirt-road of clubs. I have had rope 
and tackle round your body for two weeks to get you 
out of this road, but you stick so I am afraid to pull 
much harder, or I will pull you in two. My! how a 
fellow mires and mires! O my brethren, let us face 
the fact once for all and forever! There is but one 
road on which a human soul can run safely and for- 
ever, and that is the road Jesus meant when he said, 
" I am the way." Am I up on this high way, this holy 
way, that leads to God? If I am not, ye angels and 
men put your tackle to me, and put me up on the 
way. A man doesn't have to study long before he 
comes to the conclusion that if he is selling whisky, 
or if he is gambling, he ought to quit; if he is a li- 
centious man, he ought to be a pure man. I care not 
how your sin may be hugged, it is sin still, and it has 
the elements of damnation in it. There is a heap of 
gilded sin in the world. This gilded sin in high sta- 
tions is a worm gnawing at the vitals of society. You 
know better; you have been trained better. God has 
bestowed upon you ten thousand blessings, and you 
take these blessings and turn them into engines of 
the devil. Gilded sin! How many of us have run 
out just about as far as we can go on this way? We 
stand to-night pleading guilty before God, and want- 



Sermons and Sayings. 2J3 



ing to be better. There we are now. Let me tell you, 
David has something practical for ns fellows here 
to-night. "I thought on my ways," he said. That is 
the first thing. Alex. Stephens, our grand old ex-Gov- 
ernor and ex-Congressman, a man we loved and hon- 
ored in Georgia, once said: "I have made it a rule of 
life that just as soon as I found out that I was in the 
wrong road, I turned round and got into the right 
road." If all men would act that way toward God, 
themselves, and their families, everybody would soon 
be on the road to heaven. Just as soon as he saw he 
was in the wrong road he would take the back track; 
for the way to the right road is to turn round and go 
the other way. Every step you go in the wrong di- 
rection just multiplies the steps that would take you 
back in the right direction. 

"I thought on my ways" as a profane swearer. I 
am disgusted with it, and I will quit. "I thought on 
my ways" as a Sabbath-breaker, and I will quit; I 
will go back. " I thought oi. my ways " as a gambler. 
Now, I am not mad at gamblers. There is not one in 
this town with whom I would not divide my last crust, 
if he would come to-night and give me his hand, and 
say he would quit. There is' not a nobler set of men 
living than the gamblers. Some people look on gam- 
blers as below their notice, and these same people will 
be found bucking at a bucket-shop. That gambler is 
a gentleman by the side of you, sir. I think the most 
decent way in the world to gamble is with the old greasy 
deck. Now that we have come back to that, let me 
say a heap of your own people are going to hel] 
by betting on horse-racing. The highest idea many 
of you have of a horse is that he is something to be' 



224 Sermons and Sayings. 



on. That shows that the horse is of a higher breed of 
animals than you are. If one fellow owned yon both, 
I wonld give a heap more for the horse than for you. 
I will say this much: I have the profoundest con- 
tempt for a fellow who can't see a horse but that ho 
wants to run his hand in his pocket and bet some- 
thing on it. It would take two or three hundred bot- 
tles of disinfectants to deodorize a horse-race so that 
decent people could enjoy it. The devil has taken 
about the best things we have in this world and ruined 
them. A fiddle is the grandest thing I have ever 
listened to in my life; but the devil has a mortgage 
on it. I am willing to go into a war of conquest 
until we get that back. I never hear one that it does 
not make me feel like sifting sand. Let us get these 
things out of the hands of the devil. 

"I thought on my ways." Whatever there was 
wrong in my life, I studied it out, saw that it was 
wrong. "I thought on my ways, and turned my feet 
unto thy testimonies. I made haste, and delayed not 
to keep thy commandments." How long ought a man 
to think on the subject? As soon as you see that 
swearing, drinking, gambling, and betting are wrong, 
you have thought enough. It is time to emigrate, to 
get away from there. As soon as you see that you 
have drifted off into an unheaithful latitude, all you 
need is to go up to a higher plane. I turned my feet 
unto the testimonies of God; I came on the higher 
way, the right way, and walked there, and rejoice 
in the fact that there was a way that led to a bet- 
ter and a higher life. That is it. O me! I have mired 
down ten thousand times, and my friends have pulled 
me out. How many roads have I mired down in since 



Seemons and Sayings. 225 



I got back on the way that God made for my soul, 
and made my soul for it! There is no such thing as 
mired down without a check up and a switch off of 
this way. Whenever you mire down, you are off the 
track. "I thought on my ways" enough to see that 
they were not right; then I turned my feet to the tes- 
timonies of God. Let me tell you about this book. 
A man never got into trouble by following this book. 
As I said out here in the penitentiary of your State 
while talking to the convicts, " Every one of you con- 
victs made the mistake of not following this book." 
Every man who rejoices in freedom to-night rejoices 
in the doctrines and teachings of this blessed book. 
I care not what State or government it is, no legisla- 
ture has ever passed a good law that is contrary to the 
teachings of the word of God. Against the teachings 
of the word of God there is no law. There is nothing 
in the Bible to put a fellow in jail, if he will follow it. 
This is the high way and the holy way s It will lead 
me successfully through life, and lead me to God in 
the end. David said: "I thought on my ways, and 
turned my feet unto thy testimonies. I made haste, 
and delayed not to keep thy commandments." I love 
to see a fellow in a hurry sometimes. There is one 
thing I have against the Church in this century, and 
that is, the devil can ran a mile while we are pulling 
on our boots. We are too slow : we go into our church- 
es and start up, "Hark! from the tombs a doleful 
sound!" and by the time we get started the devil is 
at the next station. We want more "git up and git." 
I have known preachers who seemed only fit to marry 
the living and bury the dead. There are some preach- 
ers who never get right up on a sinuer till he is dy- 



226 Sermons and Sayings. 



ing. They catch him then, though. We want preach- 
prs who have "git up and git" about them. If a 
sinner outruns me, it is because he got up first. If 
he will give me an even start, I will run him a good 
race. If there is any* thing in that old proverb, "A 
lean dog for a long race," I will give him a long race! 
"I made haste." The trouble with us is, we are giv- 
ing too much time to considering, and not enough to 
preaching. " We spend our years as a tale that is told. 
They are like grass which groweth up. In the morning 
it flourisheth and groweth up; in the evening it is cut 
down, and withereth." All depends on my making that 
train. Fifteen minutes more and it will move out. Then 
I am left, and all is undone. Get out of my way! do n't 
stop me to give me money, or to shake hands with me. 
Death won't wait for any of us. An eminent man in 
London was dying. All the time he had to prepare 
for eternity he had spent in accumulating money. Ho 
amassed hundreds of thousands of pounds, and at 
last he was taken suddenly ill. He sent for his phy- 
sician. When he had examined him, he said: "You 
have meningitis; you will be dead in two hours." He 
looked into the doctor's face and said: "Doctor, if 
you will keep me alive till twelve o'clock to-morrow, I 
will allow you one hundred thousand pounds." The 
doctor replied: "I have assistance to give, but I have 
no time to sell. Time belongs to God." Sure enough, 
in two hours the poor fellow went into eternity unpre- 
pared. The experience is just ahead when you would 
give all in the world for one hour more under this 
gospel light God wants you to be on the high way. 
He say your time is short. Nine-tenths of the days 
of some of you are behind you Ninety- nin^ how- 



Sermons and Sayings. 227 



dredtlis of the days of some of you are behind you 
now, and He says to-night, "Make haste;" but you 
sit here under this roof and wait, and say, " To-nior- 
row night." No; to-night! to-night! "I am going to 
be religious after awhile." But now, as the oppor- 
tunity offers, when the grand old ship throws out her 
gang-plank, let us rush in upon her. She will only 
stand there a minute or two. She moves out of the 
harbor presently, and will leave you stranded forever! 
Will you permit that? 

My forty minutes are out, I see, and I will say only 
a word or two more by way of exhortation. "I made 
haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments." 
What do the commandments of God teach you and 
me? Listen: "Let the wicked forsake his way, and 
the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return 
unto the Lord." "God commandeth all men every- 
where to repent." What is repentance? It is quit- 
ting my devilment. The best repentance you can do 
is to quit your meanness. If my boy does any devil- 
ment, the best repentance he can do is to quit. My 
boy has gone away and got drunk. What sort of re- 
pentance do I want? I want quitting repentance. 
You need not blubber around me, and get drunk again 
to-morrow. You need not say a word, son. Just say 
you will quit. That is my sort of repentance. That 
is what we call evangelical repentance. You will have 
to explain legal repentance. This evangelical repent- 
ance — that is the sort these sinners want. They do n't 
want legal repentance. They are like the Irishman 
who said about justice: "Faith, that is just what I 
don't want." Evangelical repentance is quitting. I 
am done, I won't do it any more. That is the besl 



228 Sermons and Sayings. 



proof in the world that a fellow is sorry for his mean- 
ness — that he quits. "God commandeth all men." 
The first commandment of God to man is this: "God 
commandeth all men everywhere to repent." Repent, 
therefore, sinner, to-night. Be converted. I am go- 
ing to throw all my sins down in one bundle, and walk 
off from them. It is faith; it is that condition of re- 
ceptivity which admits the Lord; it is opening the 
door and letting God in. Faith is not an act; it is a 
condition as it touches your case ; it is taking what God 
promises to give you. I think that is the best thing 
you can do. Brother Holcombe, in Louisville, gets all 
those little boot-blacks and wharf -rats — gathers them 
all into his Sunday-school. He got them all up one 
Sunday, and wanted to explain faith to them. He 
made Will and Henry and Tom and John — little fel- 
lows about six or seven years old — stand up. "Now," 
said he, "I will explain faith to you." He took a 
piece of money out of his pocket, and said, "John, 
you may have that." John just stood there and 
grinned. " Henry, you may have this piece of money." 
Henry stood there and never moved a muscle, but 
grinned. "Willie, you may have that." Willie grinned 
like the others, and made no attempt to take it. " Tom, 
you may have that." Tom grabbed it, and thrust it 
down in his pocket. The other three boys cried be- 
cause they didn't get it. Will you do that to-night? 
You will go away rejoicing in the possession of it. 
"I stretched out my hands," God says, "loaded with 
blessings." Yes, Lord, I will take it. What does he 
offer? Pardon and everlasting life. I will take it to- 
night. Now, a word illustrative of what God's grace 
can do, not only for one soul, but for a whole fam- 



Sekmons and Sayings. 229 



ily. If some men who are here will get religion, their 
whole families will come in. We need that sort. I 
never think of heaven except in connection with the 
precious fact that wife and mother and all the chil- 
dren will be there. A presiding elder in our State 
told me that he was holding a quarterly-meeting and 
had love-feast Sunday morning. One preacher got 
up and told how he was nursed in the lap of religion, 
cradled in piety, and reared in the love of God. By 
and by, a young man who had just been licensed to 
preach got up and said: "I am sorry I have not the 
experiences of those who have spoken. I will tell 
you what Christianity did for me. My father was 
an infidel, my mother an atheist, and nine brothers 
and sisters were infidels and atheists. Two years ago 
I went down to a camp- meeting; I happened to go by 
myself, merely to have fun. I was standing up against 
a post, when all at once the preacher's words began to 
burn their way into my heart, and I found myself 
transfixed to that post. When the man of God quit 
preaching he invited penitents to come forward, and 
the first thing I knew I was on my knees begging for 
mercy. They encouraged me and helped me. When 
they dismissed the services, and- all were going to the 
tent, they said, 'We will sing and pray with you out 
there.' When I looked up I said, ' I did n't know till 
an hour ago that there was a God in heaven and a 
fearful ruin for sinners in the world to come. I will 
never leave this spot until I make my peace with God, 
and make him promise me forgiveness, and walk out 
a child of God and an heir of eternal life. The sun- 
light was pouring into my face when I waked up. 
I turned my eyes inward, and the fact hashed on me, 



230 Sermons and Sayings. 



' Your father will despise you, your mother will laugh 
at you, and your brothers and sisters will drive you 
from home.' ' I am going to stick to God and religion/ 
I said, 'if all the earth forsakes me; I am going to 
stand firm.' Just before I got home I went into the 
woods at the road-side and knelt down and prayed 
God to help me. 'I know I am going into a den of 
wolves. Lord, help me to be faithful. I got on my 
horse, rode to the house, put up my horse, went in to 
supper, and nobody spoke a word to me. I was hap- 
py, but spoke not a word. About a week after that 
my oldest brother and myself were sitting out on a 
log talking — we had been splitting rails; we were 
tired, and we sat down to rest. I said to him : ' Brother 
Tom, do you know I got religion down at that camp- 
meeting?' I looked at him, and the great big tears 
were running down his face. He said: "We have all 
noticed a change in you. Mother says you look and 
talk just like an angel. You don't swear, and you 
do n't drink, nor do any thing wrong. Do you reckon 
that preacher will do the same for me ? ' 'I will go 
with you to the meeting, and God will bless you.' My 
brother Tom got gloriously converted. I said to Tom: 
' Brother, we are going to put the candles on the can- 
dlestick now, and light up that old infidel home of 
ouis. Let us be faithful.' After supper we were sit- 
ting talking, and just about bed-time I said: 'Mother, 
do you care if brother Tom and I read a chapter and 
pray here to-night?' I watched my mother's lip 
quivei as she said: 'No, Henry; you look like an 
au gel, and your brother comes here and looks just 
like an angel too. You can do just what you want to 
do here.' My mother was sobbing, and there was sis- 



Sermons and Sayings. 231 



ter crying over there, and before Tom got off of his 
knees God had converted my brother, sister, and 
mother. We just prayed on until every member of 
our family was converted; and there is my old father, 
the last one to come in, now a child of God — all chil- 
dren of God, and on their way to heaven." God give 
us religion that catches all over the house, and starts 
us on our way to God ! Brethren, let us go to God to- 
nigh * and not stop until all our families are saved. 



SAYINGS. 

I 7SED to dance; but when I wanted a wife, I went 
to the prayer-meeting; and I beat your sort, too. 

While we are singing "Hark! from the tombs a 
dolr^.ul sound!" the devil is at the next station. We 
ought to "git up and git." 

One thing I have against the Church in this day: 
We are too slow. The devil can run a mile while we 
are pulling on our boots. 

As I look you in the face to-night, I tell you that if 
you will say "I am done, I will quit," and mean it 
with all your heart, God will put his hand on you and 
save you. 

I am requested to "Please say something about 
people pretending to be Christians and are not.' 
Well, that is out of my line. (That one thing had 
been the burden of his preaching for twenty days.) 

Some preachers never Tun up on a sinner until he 
is on his death-bed. About all they are fit for is to 
marry the living and bury the dead. They sometimes 
catch up with the poor sinner just before the last 
breath leaves him. Poor fellows! 



232 Sermons and Sayings. 



I sometimes go to a place and find the preacher 
in the shafts pulling the whole load, with his tongue 
lolling out, and the whole church up in the wagon, 
some dancing, some drinking, some gambling, some 
swearing, some going to the theater, some fussing, 
some praying, some weeping, some shouting, some 
tattling, some scolding, and all at times taking a 
whack at the poor little half-dead preacher, pulling 
for dear life. Sometimes they take him out and feed 
him on rye-straw and corn-shucks. That is a sorry 
sight! I never want to leave that place until the 
whole thing is reversed — the church in the shafts 
and the preacher on the box holding the ribbons and 
ciacking his whip. Now you are getting down to 
business. I like that. 



SERMON XVI. 
The Doctrine Demonstrated. 

"If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, 
whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." (John vii. 17.) 

4| RECEIVED a telegram from Fort Worth, Texas, 
j| signed by all the pastors of that city, announcing 
' a great work of grace. More than five hundred 
souls have been born to God. They rejoice with you, 
and ask an interest in your prayers, and they are pray- 
ing for you. This is certainly a year of great grace. 
I believe that more people will be born to God in 1885 
than in any other year of this world's history. This 
is the year of grace and the year of jubilee. 

We invite your attention to-night, prayerfully, to 
the seventeenth verse of the seventh chapter of the 
Gospel by St. John: "If any man will do his will, he 
shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or 
whether I speak of myself." At the time Jesus ut- 
tered these words — for they are his words — he was 
surrounded by the sharp, calculating Pharisee, the 
keen, shrewd Sadducee, and the cunning, wide-awake 
lawyers, who were probing, dissecting, and weighing 
every utterance of his lips. They not only weighed 
his words, but they looked at his person. Two men 
may see very different things when they are looking 
in the same direction. There are twenty men stand- 
ing all around Christ. He turns to nineteen of them 
and says to them: "Whom say ye that I am?" The 
nineteen men speak up and say: "Thou art the son of 

(233) 



234 Sermons and Sayings. 



a harlot, and an impostor." He turns to Simon 
Foter: "Whom say you that I am?" I wish I could 
have seen Simon Peter when his eye flashed with 
light as he said: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the 
living God." He had gotten into the secret. We say 
Christ threw the gauntlet down here at every man's 
feet, and defied the logic of earth and hell to the test. 
And this is the last test and the only test: "If any 
man will do the will of God, Le shall know of the doc- 
trine" for himself. Now look here, I am glad that\ 
Christianity is a science that may be tested just as 
any other science is tested. I thank God that it will 
stand the test just as any other science. The only 
difference there is between the science of Christianity 
and any other science is, that I learn all the others !■ 
with my head, and this science of Christ crucified I j 
learn with my heart. We take the science of mathe- 
matics; and, brethren, right here let me suggest that 
while we all may differ as to the rules by which we 
reach the answer, yet the answer is one and the same 
The rules are various by which we work out any prob- 
lem in mathematics, but about all I want a man to ad- 
mit is that twice two are four. Let me chain him 
there and he will do, if he will only stick to the fact 
that twice two are four. Then every thing in math- 
ematics must be worked out by that rule; but if he 
says twice two are four and a half, I won't waste 
my time with him. If a man will admit that Jesus 
died to save sinners, I will chain him there and let 
liiin graze all around that peg. I don't care what he 
believes; I don't care whether he believes in sprink- 
ling or immersion; I don't care whether he believes 
iu final perseverance or not — whether in total or par- 



Sebmons and Sayings. 23j 



tial depravity. Let us chain this old world to that 
stake, that Jesus died to save sinners, and I don't 
care what you do. Every evangelical Church in this 
world is chained to that stake. I used to think a man 
could not get religion unless he believed every thing 
in the Bible. I made a mistake there. There is a 
great deal in this world written and said on hetero- 
doxy and orthodoxy. I thank God it is not written in 
God's book that everybody who believes every word 
in the Bible shall be saved. A fellow once went to a 
preacher down in Georgia and said: "I don't believe 
the Old Testament is inspired, but I believe that the 
New Testament is inspired. Can I get religion with- 
out the Old Testament?" "Yes." "Show me the 
place." "Any man who builds on this foundation," 
etc., "he shall be saved." "Turn me a leaf down 
there." He took the Bible, went home, got on his 
knees, prayed and repented, and God forgave him. 
Then he said: "I believe the Old Testament too, now, 
I just believe it all." I like that. A fellow says I 
don't believe so and so. I don't care if you don't 
God doesn't care any more what you have in your 
head than he cares what kind of boots you have on 
your feet. No wonder you do n't believe some things. 
If you will just walk right up and surrender your 
heart to God, and give yourself to God, he will comb 
the kinks out of your head mighty fast. I am filled 
■with contempt to hear one of these little cymling- 
headed infidels say, " I never can be saved, because I 
can't believe so and so." I am sorry for him. He 
has shut himself out of the pale of God's mercy be- 
cause his little cymling-head has got something in it 
that is not right. God says, "Give me thine heart" 



236 Seemons and Sayings. 



If you will give your heart to God, he will look ^ftei 
the rest. Down at Huntsville, Ala., one of the lending 
citizens took me out to one side and said: "I waat to 
be a Christian, I want to love God and do right, but I 
can't believe in the divinity of Christ to save my life." 
"Shut your mouth!" I said; "don't come to me with 
talk like that. Do just as Christ told you to do, and 
if you do n't make the landing I will swim out to you 
and drown with you. You come to meeting to-night, 
and be the first one up there when I call for sinners 
to come forward." "If I join the Church, Mr. Jones, 
I can't believe." "Shut your mouth! I am prescrib- 
ing for you, and if you will take my remedy I will 
warrant the cure." He walked up and joined the 
Church that night. I said: "Well, you have joined 
the Church; you must take up family prayer, and if I 
call on you to pray in church you get down and do 
your level best. I will get you out if you keep your 
mouth shut." I led him out sure enough. That night 
he took up family prayer, and started right. I went 
back to Huntsville afterward, and asked, "How is 
Brother Ford getting on?" "He is the best we 
have." "How is he on the divinity?" "O he has 
quit all that long ago." If you will give God your 
heart, he will take care of your head. I do n't know 
whether I am orthodox or not, but you all can attend 
to the orthodoxy after I am gone. It will do you good 
to see these preachers with mud on th eir horn s in 
their pulpits next Sunday. They will show you what 
orthodoxy is, and will slean you up, too. I say, my 
brethren, if you want religion, go heart foremost to- 
ward God. That is it. "I want to be a good man; 
1 want to serve God; I want to shun hell." That is 



Sermons and Sayings. 237 



your heart talking now. Just let your heart move 
out toward God, and the more your head gets right 
the more you will get straight all over, and you will 
not only believe the New but the Old Testament too. 
The science of Christ crucified is preeminently a 
heart science. It has to do with my heart and my 
life. Any man who will do the will of God shall 
know of the doctrine. If you will work the prob- 
lems out under the Divine Spirit, the results will be 
right. Two and two are four. That is a five-year- 
old school-boy business. Here is a test of mathe- 
matics: I go to the Alps, those grand old mountains 
dividing France and Switzerland. They want to tun- 
nel those mountains for a railroad to connect these 
countries. How shall we meet, working from both 
sides? Mathematics speaks up, and says: "I will 
show you how you can meet each, other in the heart 
of that mountain." There are millions at stake. Mill- 
ions will be lost if any mistake is made. The engi- 
neers bring their instruments to bear on that mounts 
ain and tell the workmen where to go to work on this 
side and then on the other side. I do wonder if the 
science of mathematics is correct? Men of earth, 
gaze on this scene ! On the side of France the work- 
men one day heard the click of the picks of the other 
workmen. They worked with a will, and at last the 
wall of partition fell down, and mathematics had 
struck it to the fraction of an inch. That is a living 
demonstration that mathematics is true. You can 
test religion as you test mathematics. It never misses 
in a single case. Get me the knottiest case you can 
find. Here is a man who was born blind. He never 
saw a wink. I lead- him into th presence of Christ 



238 Sermons and Sayings. 



He says: "Master, that I may receive my sight.*' 
Never had a man been restored to sight that was born 
blind. Jesus spat on the ground and made a remedy, 
rubbed it on his eyes, and told him to go and wash in 
the pool near by. The scientist would say: "There is 
some curative power in the dry dirt, but he has taken 
all the curative properties out of it by moistening it." 
The blind fellow says, " I will try him." He went to 
the pool, and stooped down and bathed his eyes in 
the water; and he looked up and saw rocks and riveis 
and mountains that his eyes never looked on before. 
The priests said: "Give God the glory, for this man 
has a devil." The man said: "One thing I know, that 
whereas I was blind, now I see." That was a true 
test. I would like to see it tried in one more instance. 
Bring a leper — ten bad cases of it. " Master, that we 
may be made whole." Jesus said: "Go and show 
yourselves to the priests." The leper had to lift up 
his hands and say, "Unclean! " if anybody approached 
him. The lepers said, "We are going to put it to the 
test;" and off they went. The scales dropped from 
their bodies, and all of them rejoiced that their flesh 
was as sound as an infant's. One returned to praise 
the Lord for the healing of all the lepers. 

If a man says to me, " I do n't believe in Christian- 
ity," I have just one question to ask him: "Did you 
ever put it to the test ? " " No." " You are a fool, then ; 
and I won't bother with you." As much as there is at 
stake in this question, he tells me, "I don't believe 
in it;" and yet he says, "I never tested it! " He is a 
hard case, sure enough. This passenger-train runs 
to Chattanooga in five hours and forty-five minutes 
"I don't believe it." "The way to test it is to coma 



Sermons and Sayings. 239 



with me, and I will show you." "I haven't anj 
money." "I will pay your way." "No; I ian't go 
with you." "Well, you will take my word that it goes 
there in that time ? " " No." " Then, you had better 
rack off to the asylum or the jail." He is either a 
rascal or a fool, or both. I would much rather be a 
rascal than a fool. You can reform a rascal; but 
what are you going to do with a fool? I tell him 
there is a bright light over the hill. " Come on, and 
I Avill show it to you." I catch him and pull him up 
to the top of the hill. He turns his head away. I 
pull his head round, and he puts his hands on his 
eyes. I remove his hands, and he shuts his eyes. The 
main reason some men don't want to see is be- 
cause they think that a sight of Christ will change 
their lives so they will have to quit certain things. 
Many a fellow would like religion if he did n't know 
that religion would mighty near ruin him for this 
world. There are men right here under my eyes 
who say: "How can I keep on going and yet keep 
from being saved? I don't want to be saved." I 
will tell you, if some of you men should get a good 
case of religion, you would last for about a month. 
You would n't know what to do or where to go. There 
is no use in talking about saving in heaven such men 
as you are. If you were to get to heaven, you would 
wake up at four o'clock, and the first thing you would 
think of would be a drink. You would prance all 
around heaven, and if you could find a low place in 
the fence you would jump out and be back here be- 
fore breakfast. You all think this is tomfoolery, but 
it is as true as I am talking to you. You have got to 
do something for the man to make him at homo \v 



240 Sekmons and Sayings. 



heaven. It is the will of God that I repent; that 1 
quit the wrong, and that I turn toward the right. That 
is it. Let me tell you how to get religion. This case 
illustrates it. A man who lived down in Middle Geor- 
gia a number of years ago — a very intelligent man, 
young and married — went to church one day. His 
VAife didn't go with him. When he came home his 
wife said, "What sort of meeting had you to-day?" 
"A pretty good meeting. I joined the Church to- 
day." "Have you got religion?" "No." "What 
did you do that for, if you haven't got religion?" 
" The preacher said if I would do before I got relig- 
ion like I would do after I got religion, I would get 
religion." " Well," said she, " if that does n't head me! 
You joined the Church, and haven't got religion!" 
That night just before they retired, he said to his wife: 
"Wife, get down that old Bible; I am going to pray 
at home." "Are you going to pray when you have n't 
got religion? " "Yes; the preacher said, 'If you will 
do before you get religion what you would do after 
you get religion, you will get religion.' " In the morn- 
ing he said, " Get that Bible, wife ; I am going to pray 
again." "What do you pray for without religion?" 
" The preacher said if I would do before I got religion 
what I would do after I got religion, I would get relig- 
ion." Wednesday night he went to prayer-meeting in 
the country, and they called on him to pray. He got 
down and did his best; and his wife said, when he 
told her he had prayed at the meeting: "You pray in 
public, sir, and got no religion! What did you do 
that for? " " The preacher said if I would do before 
I got religion like I would do after I got religion, I 
would get religion." Now, he moved along on thai 



Sermons and Sayings. 241 



lino about three weeks, and the first thing one knew 
religion broke out on him all over, from head to foot. 
Just as certain as that passenger-train will carry a 
man to Chattanooga, just so certainly will the means 
of grace take a man to God. I was pastor of a cir- 
cuit in Georgia. I had a fifth-wheel to my circuit — a 
nice little country building built by the sinners who 
wanted preaching over in that settlement. When I 
went there I found just four members. When I saw 
I had only four members I inquired who lived about 
there. I thought somebody hadn't done his duty. 
On the fifth Sunday in March I went home with one 
of the best farmers in Central Georgia. I asked him 
if he was a member of the Church. He said he was 
not. "I want you to join to-morrow; I am scarce of 
members over in this settlement." "I can't join the 
Church," he said; "I have said I would never join the 
Church till I got religion." "Would you know relig- 
ion if you should see it in the road?" "Well, Mr. 
Jones, I swear and drink sometimes." " That is the 
reason I want you to join. You have sense and 
honor, and if you join you will quit all that." His 
wife came out regularly to meeting, read her Bible, 
was a charitable, good woman, but she said, "I will 
never join the Church till I get religion." I had a 
hard time with this man, his wife, and children; but 
they joined. I went back there on the fifth Sunday 
in July. On Saturday night my wife and children 
were at his house. He and I walked through the 
field to church. " How is old Watts? " " Old Watts 
is doing his whole duty. He could n't be religious if 
he didn't." He said: "I have been in the Church 
three months, and I haven't got any more religion 
16 



2-12 Sermons and Sayings. 



than that old horse that is pulling the women to 
church. I am tired of it." "I am going to call on 
you to pray to-night," I said; "you are getting along 
very well." "If you want me to pray, and call on 
me, I will do my best. I am going to teach a class 
in the Sunday-school too." He then suddenly ex- 
claimed: "Glory to God, I've got it now! I've got it 
now! " Now, there it is, my brethren; and whenever 
a man walks up before God, and says, "I have quit 
drinking and cursing, I have settled that account, I 
am ready to do any thing and every thing "—if you 
will say that, you will get it. Any man who will do 
the will of God shall know of the doctrine. 

Said a good citizen of this town: "I want to do 
better and be better, but I ain't ready to commit my- 
self." I do n't care how bad you want to go to Chat- 
tanooga, the thing that keeps you from going is not 
getting on the train, and that one thing will keep you 
from Chattanooga forever. And the very thing that 
keeps a man from committing himself to God is 
the thing that will keep him out of heaven at last. 
Brethren, let me tell you this: A man who stands 
here at this door to-night and says: "This is the 
darkest night the world ever saw; but I want to 
go to the Maxwell House, and I can see only one 
light or gas-jet burning. That light doesn't go all 
the way. I will get in the dark and fall, and hurt 
myself. I can't go; I am afraid to go." I say: "Go 
along, brother; the light lasts all the way. Just about 
the time the light from this gas-jet gives out the othei 
one sets in; but you can't see more than one jet at a 
time." It is daylight all the way to heaven. It is 
ten thousand times harder to get a man to take the 



Sermons and Sayings. 243 



first step than to get him to take all succeeding steps. 
Any man who will do the will cf God shall know of 
the doctrine. Quit doing wrong; go to doing right. 
Trust in Him who died to save and redeem sinners. 
Just run on till you get out of breath and fall down 
exhausted. O my brethren, if we could just realize 
to-night that God is our Father! If one of my boys, 
at twenty- five years of age, were to wander off into 
every sin in the world, what do you think I would 
want my boy to do? Just come home. You have 
been away off yonder, and have done a thousand things 
wrong — just come back, and take my advice and obey 
me. I wish we could banish all mystery from relig- 
ion to-night, and realize that God is the father and 
mother of every one of us, and welcomes us back, 
and each sinner would say, "I come back to-night." 
I wish we could say this. 

I want to say in conclusion: If you will come to 
God and do right, you will die happy and go home 
to heaven. There are many men here to-night who 
lack one step of coming into the kingdom. " I con- 
secrate my life to Christ. I make him my Saviour, 
and will do his will from this time on and forever." 
Will you believe to-night? Will you confess to- 
night? Lord Jesus, take us to-night into thine own 
arms, and show us how graciously thou canst forgive! 
I want every man in this tent to-night who feels like 
he wants to take every essential step that will bring 
him to God — who wants to take just the steps that 
will bring him to God — to rise up, and we will pray 
for him. All over and all around they stand! Do n'i 
be afraid or ashamed. You are away from God, 
and want to take the right steps that will bring 



2M Sermons and Sayings. 



you to him. The thing that keeps you from stand- 
ing up is the thing that will keep you from heaven 
at last. 



SAYINGS. 

You may not like my grammar. I am trying to get 
my style and grammar down to your level. 

God pity the doctor who will prescribe liquor for a 
man! I might prescribe it for a poor dying woman, 
but I would n't give it to man until he was dead. 

If you will do before you get religion what you 
know you would do after you got religion, you will be 
sure to get it. It will break out all over you, from 
head to foot, like the measles. 

I don't know whether I am orthodox or not; but 
you preachers can attend to the orthodoxy after I am 
gone. You will see these preachers in their pulpits 
next Sunday with mud on their horns. They will 
show you what orthodoxy is, and clean you up too. 

I am filled with contempt when I hear one of these 
little cymling-headed infidels say, " I can't be saved, 
because I can't believe in Christ." I am sorry for him. 
He has shut himself out of the pale of God's mercy 
because his little cymling-head has some kinks in it. 
God says, " Give me thine heart." If you will sur- 
render your heart to God, he will soon comb the kinks 
out of your head. 



SERMON XVil. 

God's Calls and Man's Calamities. 

"Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out mf 
hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my coun- 
sel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity ; 
I will mock when your fear cometh." (Proverbs i. 24-26.) 

'HERE are many requests here for prayer for 
loved ones. God knows their names, and who 
they are. Let us pray God to bless these loved 
ones. I received a protest to the programme I sug- 
gested concerning the whisky in this city I said I 
wished it all could be emptied into the Cumberland. 
This friend protests. She wants it emptied into the 
lake of fire and brimstone. She doesn't want the 
Cumberland contaminated with it. I always said I be- 
lieve whisky is a good thing in its place. I believe 
its place is in hell. If I were there, I would get drunk 
every day; but I will never do it on top of ground. 

Brethren, let us be prayerful to-night, and expect 
great results. We generally get all we believe for. 
"According to your faith, so be it unto you." Let us 
have present faith, expecting present conviction, pres- 
ent conversion. Let us have faith that God will open 
the windows of heaven now. 

We have selected as the text: "Because I have 
called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, 
and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all 
my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will 
laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your feai 

(2l5j 



246 Seemons and Sayings. 



cometh." I have read three verses of the first chap- 
ter of Proverbs. There are a thousand expressions 
in this book that convince me beyond all question 
that the Lord God loves men, and is anxious and de- 
sirous that all men should be saved. The calls of 
God to man are as numerous as the stars of heaven. 
A man who will sit down and read this book carefully 
and prayerfully must come to one conclusion — that 
God not only wills the salvation of all men, but that 
he has provided salvation for all men. He is spread- 
ing a knowledge of this fact among all the children 
of men. It is enough to bring me to my feet when I 
know who the author is, because it is the great God 
who made this world, who numbers the hairs of every 
head, who watches every step of our life, and ana- 
lyzes every motive of our being — he who shall forever 
judge us. He speaks out this way: "I have called, 
and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and 
no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my 
counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will 
laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear 
cometh." " You shall seek me, and shall not find me." 
" You shall die in your sins." Shall we not be moved? 
That is the most awful utterance of the lips of Christ. 
And now for a few minutes to-night we have to do 
with this text. I declare that a man who can sit un- 
moved uuder such influence as God has brought to 
bear on this congregation for the last few weeks may 
consider himself invulnerable forever and ever. It is 
about time some of you were deciding some ques- 
tions. I want to look you in the face to-night and 
say, "God himself stands powerless in your presence 
until he can get you to decide some questions." Un- 



Sermons and Sayings. 247 



til you conclude to be good, he is as powerless to save 
you as I am. I speak it reverently. If you want to 
make a farmer out of your boy, and you can't get him 
to decide that he will be a farmer, you might buy all 
the land and mules in this State for him and not 
make him a farmer. Until you get his consent to go 
to farming, all you do for him will result in failure. 
You cannot make a lawyer out of your boy if he is 
lying about these groceries, and giving his time to 
young ladies. It is useless to buy books for him and 
get an office for him if he won't go into the office nor 
read the books. You can never make a lawyer out of 
him on that line. God cannot help a man to be a 
good man until he decides to be good. The omnipo- 
tent God stands powerless in your presence until you 
decide some things. He says: " Choose whom you will 
serve. If God, serve him; if Baal, serve him." I will 
tell you what an effectual call is. It is that which 
gets you up on your feet, and gets you to moving. 
That is the only effectual call I know any thing about. 
I like a plain, old-fashioned gospel that says, "You 
are a sinner, and if you do n't repent you will be 
damned." You can't bring on the millennium with airy 
other kind of gospel except that. Every call that 
God ever made is effectual. It is God's business U 
call, and it is yours to make it effectual. My fellow- 
citizens, I bring the truth home to your consciences 
to-night. If you are ever good, you have got to de- 
cide to be so, and with your present lights too. Gol 
will never put any more pressure on the means of 
grace; he will never bring any more to bear from 
heaven. You have to decide with present influence 
and grace, or leave it undecided, which is to die for 



218 Sermons and Sayings. 



ever. I heard of an old fellow who was unconverted. 
I met him during the meeting. I said to him: "You 
are gray-headed; you will be dead directly." Said he: 
I have been listening for that still small voice for 
sixty years." "Have you heard it?" "No." "You 
will never hear it. Come up to our meeting, like a 
white man, or you will be damned before you know 
it." He came that night, fell down on his knees and 
prayed, and got religion. Methodism had done more 
for him in one hour than Hardshellism had done in 
sixty years. 

You may announce an excursion-train to New York 
City at fifty cents for the round trip, and that fellow 
who decides to go with a half-dollar in his pocket is 
the one who is effectually called. Every fellow who 
gets aboard is effectually called sure enough, and you 
fellows who do not get aboard are not; that is all, and 
that settles it. There are many ways by which men 
are called to a better life. Put that Bible in every 
man's house, and if there were no' other means of 
grace in the universe but that book, every man who 
dies impenitent dies with light and knowledge forced 
upon him, and dies without excuse. Do you know 
how many times God calls a man to repentance and 
a better life in that book? If you were to read and 
ponder only one call a day, it would take you one 
year to get through that book. These calls mean, 
" Come up higher." That is the plain English of every 
call in this book. A call from the wrong, and a call 
to the right. This blessed book is full of calls to the 
< liiklren of men. If that were the only call we had. 
we all ought to be good. But God sends his Divine 
Spirit into this world, and this Divine Spirit poise- 



Sermons and Sayings. 249 



himself over the pages of this book, and bathes every 
utterance of the book in a sea of light, and shows 
you that these are God's words. His power and grace 
and great loving heart are in every one of these words, 
and he calls to us by his Spirit. Every desire to go 
higher, every impulse to rise to a better life, every in- 
fluence that leads from the wrong and toward the right, 
is put in motion by the Third Person of the Trinity, 
and is under his direct influence. By his Spirit he 
calls us to a better life. He calls, and calls, and calls. 
His Divine Spirit broods over this world day and 
night — Sunday, Monday, and Thursday; in January 
and in August; all the time God's Spirit is calling 
for all men to come to a higher and better life. You 
have heard those calls. God not only calls us by that 
book and by his Divine Spirit, but he calls us by his 
ministry. These consecrated men, who are up speak- 
ing, and crying aloud, and sparing not, are calling 
men to a better life. There have been enough sermons 
preached in this town to save every man, woman, and 
child in this town a thousand times over. Every gos- 
pel sermon is a call to a better life. You never heard 
a sermon preached by a white man or a black man that 
did n't have enough truth in it to save your soul. 

We have some very hypercritical persons in this 
country — born critics. One of these fellows said of me: 
"Listen! he uses two negatives in the same sentence." 
God deliver me from these spelling-book critics ; these 
little fellows!* I won't mind being swallowed by a 

* This is a fitting place for the statement that Mr. Jones's disre- 
gard of grammatical rules in his pulpit deliverances is always cb 
viously studied; and, besides having the merit of popularity, it if 
one of his mo.st effective means of rightly impressing the multitude. 



250 Sermons and Sayings. 



whale; but ain't it painful to be nibbled to death by 
minnows? Brethren, I want to say in behalf of every 
preacher in this goodly city that there is not a ser- 
mon uttered by them, there is not a service held in 
their churches, in which there is not truth enough to 
save the city. They are consecrated to God. They 
have called, and you have heard these calls. The 
greatest blessing a people ever had in the universe is 
a faithful preacher. You have them in this city by 
the score. The greatest blessing is a game preach- 
er, who ain't afraid of man or the devil. You have 
that sort here. The other sort, who are a laughing- 
stock for the devil — I don't reckon you have any of 
that sort in this city. I will tell you what we want: 
every pulpit in this city to be a grand old battery, 
with every gun full of grape and canister. Whenever 
a ball, or a card-room, or a charity-ball is started, we 
want every cannon in the city turned loose on them. 
The ministers have done their duty. No preacher 
can be an effective preacher whose hands are not held 
up by the better influences of the Church. I tell you 
ivhat you brethren of the pulpit don't need. You 
do n't need the criticisms of your church. You need 
their prayers around the throne of God. That is 
what you want. I remember in my boyhood days— 
and some of you can call up a like memory of your 
boyhood days — when I listened to those old worthy 
preachers in Georgia who have crossed over and wear 
their crowns in heaven. I remember how I was sent 
away conscience-stricken. Let us remember the ten 
thousand calls of the pulpit in our past lives. The 
pulpit has been faithful. 

God not only calls us by his word and Spirit and gos- 



Sekmons and Sayings. 251 



pel, but lie calls us by his providences in ten thousand 
ways — calls us to a better life, a higher life. Just see 
what a chain of providences has hedged me in all 
my life! Sometimes a man won't admit that there is 
a providence all around him. Sometimes it shields 
and overshadows us, and we don't know any thing 
about it. A man will run out to catch the train to 
Chattanooga. When he goes to the office to buy his 
ticket, just as the train is starting, he says: "I 
have come down here, and it is essential that I go; 
but I have left my pocket-book at home." He goes 
back home and says to his wife : " I have n't got sense 
enough to be a business man at all." He walks down 
to his store, and learns that at ten minutes after ten 
o'clock that train fell through an open truss, and killed 
forty passengers; and he says, "Thank God, I left my 
pocket-book!" God's providence shields us that way 
very often, when we know nothing about it. No poor 
drunkard ever died in this city who was not a call to 
every other man in this city . No poor gambler was 
ever ruined whose corpse did not look back on all 
other gamblers as a warning and a call to a better 
life. No fashionable woman ever died in this fash- 
ionable city, enamored of fashion and the world, 
whose pale face, as she lay in her coffin, did not say, 
"Don't do as I did." No old sinner ever died that 
the very atmosphere of the tomb did not speak out to 
every other sinner, "Do n't die as I have died." 

Brethren, we have it on scriptural authority that 
even the spirits down in the lost world are anx- 
ious that no one of us shall go there. When Dives 
asks for a drop of water, shut up in infinite despair, 
he says* "If there is no help for me, send Lazarus 



252 Sermons and Sayings. 



back, that my brothers may not come here also." The 
very lost spirits are beckoning back, and saying, "Do 
not come here!" When God came into your house, 
and took that babe of yours and carried it to heaven, 
he baid, while looking down on the grave, "It can't 
come back to you, but you can go to it." "Yes, go to 
this lovely child." "What does God take our chil- 
dren for?" asked a lady of me to-day. God can man- 
age you better with your children in heaven than he 
could manage you if they were on earth with you. 
Sometimes the cords that bind us are cut, or nearly 
snapped, then God binds you with another ligament 
that you can't break. Every case of sickness and 
affliction is another means to bring you to a better 
life. When God came to my home it was the darkest 
hour through which my home ever passed. My wife 
was on a visit to my sister in Alabama. I received a 
telegram which said, "Come; little Paul is very ill." 
I was looking for wife home that very day. I had 
just gotten toys for the sweet children. I answered 
the summons, and as I slept a little on the train I 
would wake up now and then feeling that in a few 
hours I should see the sweet child better. When 
I walked up the way to the house of my sister, wife 
fell into my arms helpless in her great grief. I went 
into the house, and there was little Paul's waxen fig- 
uie smooth and white, as if chiseled out of marble. 
As I looked on that face, O how sad it was to me! but 
I am a better father and a better husband because J 
have a babe in heaven. Bickersteth says a babe in 
heaven is a babe forever. God took my father, and 
that broke my heart. I had a broken and contrite 
heart. 



Sermons and Sayings. 253 



Look at the providence of this tent. You will tell 
me God didn't put up this tent. If he ever had a 
hand in any thing in the universe, he put up this tent. 
I believe he put it up through you. God's arms are 
spread out toward us to-night. God means that 
heaven and everlasting life will be yours if you want 
it. Do you believe it? Why, sir, God is in this 
movement. God has saved thousands through this 
movement. I thoroughly believe it. Now, will you 
be saved ? or will you walk out from under this conse- 
crated place and go down to hell at last? This tent is 
a providence calling men to a better life. Many are 
hearing and heeding this call, thank God, and they 
are going to be saved by this call. Help us, O God, 
to rush into thy arms and be saved! 

Now we want to say, These calls! How God callh 
you to a better life! Are you a merchant? Do you 
sell goods by the yard? Every time you measure a 
piece of cloth for a customer God measures off with 
his measuring-stick against you, or for you, in the 
eternal world. Are you a book-keeper? Whenever 
you write a line on that book God says, " I am keeping 
books against you." Are you a lawyer? Have you an 
advocate up there, even Jesus Christ the righteous? 
Are you a school-teacher? Jesus says: "Come and 
learn of me. I will teach you things that Socrates 
never dreamed of, and Plato never thought of." Are 
you a groceryman? Every time you throw any thing 
into the scales, God says: "Mene, Mene,Tekel, Uphar- 
gin." God says of every tree that gladdens your eye 
with its verdant beauty, "I have been sowing the 
seed of love in your heart." Are you a blacksmith: 
God says: "I have been pounding on your heart foi 



254 Sermons and Sayings. 



forty years, and your heart has been as unyielding 
to the power of truth as your anvil to the blows of 
your hammer. Every season God says to you: "This 
is spring; then summer, and then autumn. The har- 
vest is past, the summer is ended, and you are not 
saved.' In ten thousand ways God talks to men. 
The old sun rises over the eastern hills, and his path- 
way glows brighter and brighter. He has reached 
the zenith for you. " You are going down to the grave. 
Will you set clear and beautiful and bright as I am 
setting this evening? or will you go down in darkness 
and despair? " Every burning and crackling fire that 
sparkles in the air is a voice to you. Will you lie down 
in the lake of fire ? May God open our eyes to see these 
calls, and our ears to hear these calls! God does not 
intend that any of us shall be lost until he has done 
his level best to save us. You have heard these calls. 
If a man was called ever so much and could say, "I 
never heard them," he might die with the sympathy 
of God upon him. You have not only heard them in 
your eats, but you hear them ringing down through the 
chambers of your soul. You have not only heard these 
calls a thousand times, but you have understood every 
one of them. I have heard them; I have understood 
them. They have been multiplied like the stars of the? 
heavens. Then if a man dies he dies without excuse, 
and sinks down to hell forever. I have often thought 
that if I were to perish, and must perish, I should want 
to go from some lonely island in the sea, where no Bi- 
ble or preacher or church or means of grace had ever 
touched its soil. I should want to go with the con- 
sciousness that I had never spurned an overture from 
God; but he that goes from this city will go therp 



Sermons and Sayings. 255 



with a vengeance! O these calls, these calls, these 
calls! Over in an Eastern country, one morning two 
visitors walked out in the valley in the suburbs of a 
village. The convent-bell commenced ringing. They 
met some one and asked, "What is that?" "That is 
a convent-bell. It rings two hours every Sabbath 
morning — from eight to ten." They turned over the 
bill; the clear notes of the bell were pealing out on 
the atmosphere. They heard the notes distinctly. 
They walked slowly, and by and by one said : " Do you 
hear the tones of that bell dying out? " And by and 
by he said : " I can't hear the tones, though it is still 
ringing, for it is not ten o'clock." The saddest expe- 
rience in human life is that when you have gone up 
the hill of life, ascended and reached the summit, you 
can hear these calls distinctly in your soul, but when 
you turn down on the other side, away from God and 
his ministers, your hearing becomes dulled, and these 
calls become fainter to you. The gospel is being 
preached all over this land, but its notes have ceased 
to reach your ear forever! Is there a man here to- 
night who does not hear now the calls that he came to 
hear? and will he not come back to God? See that 
little child running off from mamma, and mamma 
calls, and the little fellow runs on, and mamma fol- 
lows, and the little fellow looks back and says some 
childish words to mamma, but he does not obey. His 
mamma overtakes him and catches him up in her 
arms. O friends, if one won't hear the voice of God } 
can he not see the arms of God stretched out to save 
him to-night? Let us iash up and be saved by him, 
In one hand is the bread of life, and the other is laden 
with the water of life. Come, let as eat and drink 



256 Sermons and Sayings. 



and thirst no more forever. "1 have called, ye re- 
fused." Let me tell you: you need not do another 
thing wrong all your life; only refuse, and you will 
be as effectually and fully damned as if you had done 
every thing else in the world. " I also will laugh at 
your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh." 
That is the most awful expression in the word of God. 
1 have thought of that many a time. While God was 
calling I mocked, and now when I would call on God 
and be saved, God is doing just what I did to him. 
What measure you give shall be measured to you again. 
This in conclusion: A preacher told me once that 
out three miles from the town where he was pastor 
there lived a very wealthy father who had an only son, 
and that father had lavished upon his boy every lux- 
ury that money could buy. He had graduated him 
at the finest college. He had for him all that an affec- 
tionate heart and full purse could provide. The son 
came home from college, but was dissipated, and went 
from bad to worse; and the father, kind, indulgent, 
good, did all he could to win and save his boy. He 
used every means that a mortal man could use to res- 
cue and save his boy, but he went from bad to worse 
until one day the father rode into the town and saw 
his imbruted boy staggering along the sidewalk. The 
father procured such articles as he came for and went 
back home. Just a few minutes after the father came 
home the son came in at the gate staggering. The 
father did n't see him. The father walked to a grove, 
and was seen standing there with his hat off. An in- 
fiidte wail of horror escaped his lips, and was heard 
for miles off; and another wail escaped the father's 
lips, and the third wail came, and the father walked 



Sekmons and Sayings. 257 



back to his house. The boy was standing on the 
porch. The father walked him down the steps and 
pushed him off, saying: "Leave here forever; you are 
no longer my son! " That father let that boy die; he 
threw him off forever. " O Jerusalem, how often would 
1 have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth 
gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! " 
"I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when 
your fear cometh." Lord, save us from such a fearful 
curse as that! Now, do as you please. I am exhausted. 
I have done my best. I am going to ask every man 
here to-night who does n't want to die in his sins, but 
wants to be saved, to stand up and say : " I want to be 
saved; God knows it, God knows it." Will you stand 
up and say, "Pray for me?" Stand up, any of you. 
Let us all stand up. Now, friends back there, if you 
want to be saved hold up your hands. 



SAYINGS. 

The test of the fisherman is the length of his string. 

Custom is the law of fools, and is ruining this 
country 

It is no use for a man to get religion if he does n't 
quit lying. 

Find a man who is first-class at some one thing, 
and he is pretty good at every thing. 

If any of you do n't like the way these services are 
going, there are three doors; you can just rack out. 

I have known women too poor to own a pair of 
shoes, but I never knew one too poor to own a looking- 
glass. 
17 



SERMON XVIII. 
Character Building. 

(A Sermon to the Legislature.) 

'Add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowl- 
edge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, god 
liness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kind- 
ness, charity. (2 Pet. i. 5-7.) 

IX thousand years ago God said, " Let there be 
light;" and although men felt its rays for hun- 
dreds of years, they knew not what it was. Fi- 
nally philosophy stepped to the front, and told us this 
white light was the symmetrical blending of primary 
colors. Jesus Christ said to the Church, " Ye are the 
light." St. Peter analyzes the sentence, and tells us 
that it is the symmetrical blending of the Christian 
graces — faith, courage, knowledge, temperance, pa- 
tience, godliness, brotherly kindness, charity. The 
pure, white light is the seven Christian virtues blend- 
ed, as mentioned in the text; and when these graces 
are planted in a pure heart and life, that man will be 
a light of the world. 

Character is the immortal part of a man. It is that 
which will live on when this world is delivered to 
ashes Character is not like reputation. Character 
is the man himself; it is not like a glove I can put off 
and on. My reputation is what' the world says aboufc 
me; it is what men say I am, Character is what God 
knows me to be; what I really am. And what this 
world says of me amounts to very little; what God 
says of me and thinks of me is of never-ending inter- 
(258) 



Sermons and Sayings. 259 



est to me. Character is perfectly educated will. I 
don't want to be forever what I am to-day. You 
build character for eternity. We ought to build from 
divine patterns, use divinely fashioned material, and 
work under divine guidance. Our Saviour told us to 
look well to the foundation. " He that heareth these 
words and doeth them is like a man that built his 
house upon a rock," etc. That man's house stood; 
and it stood just when he needed one— when he was 
obliged to have one. He would have been left if it 
had not stood. '"He that heareth these words and 
doeth them not," etc. The winds blew, and that 
house fell just when the man needed one. It felJ 
just at the time he was obliged to have a house 
How important a thing is this foundation ! The bed 
rock upon which I build is faith. 

The cause of Christ crucified is the science of tru* 
manhood — the science of Christianity; and if we build 
upon this pattern, our life here and hereafter will be d 
success. God does for a man just in proportion as he 
can get space to work in for the good of that man. 
Take heed how ye build! The man who has faith in 
the triumph of right is omnipotent. The man who 
doubts is like a locomotive-engine without steam or 
wheels; the man who believes is like an engine with 
both — and he is a power on wheels. 

The next rock is courage. If a man believes he is 
right, the next thing he wants is courage to do the 
right. I was never so ashamed of the Legislature »f 
my own State as when they trampled under foot that 
half-mile-long petition of the women of Georgia for 
a general local option bill. They kept thinking of 
the whisky-jugs the whisky-men had sent up to theii 



4 2M) Sermons and Sayings. 



rooms, you see. Every Legislature in this country 
ought to be like Mahone, of Virginia, who weighs 
ninety-five pounds; and he says ninety pounds of 
this is backbone. We want legislators with courage 
enough to stand by the right until they die. He who 
is controlled by public opinion alone is a sycophant. 
I only want you to inquire if a matter is right, and 
whether it is for the good of the State. There is a 
power in Tennessee that would walk up and throttle 
you if it had a chance. You know this; and all you 
need is about ninety per cent, of backbone to keep off 
that power. You know what it is. It is those whisky- 
jugs. I want to find one politician who died by the 
right. If I could preach his funeral I would make 
things bounce. We want courage that stands by the 
right. We want the courage of the Koman soldiers, 
of whom Pyrrhus said: "If I had an army like that, I 
could bring the whole world to my feet." These Ko- 
man soldiers went to the battle to conquer or die. 
We only need a true and courageous man to lead us, 
and we could carry this State for the right. This 
thing we call moral courage is the grandest thing in 
the universe, and Peter knew what this meant. There 
was a time in his life when he acted the moral cow- 
ard. I believe if he had stood by Jesus in that last 
hour, God would have rushed every angel in heaven 
down to his rescue. 

Add to your faith courage. See how that rock fits! 
The thing you want is the courage that dares to be 
true; and I dare say that if one thing is lacking in the 
Church or the State it is downright, honest courage. 
A courage that will walk in the face of public opinion 
- that is what we want. Courage! If there ever wne 



Sermons and Sayings. 26] 



a time when the lines needed to be drawn, now is the 
hour. "We walk backward and forward over the line 
till it is entirely effaced. Politicians never cross the 
fence, you know! We don't want the courage which 
enables a man to walk to the mouth of a blazing can- 
non. Some of us have that. "We want the courage 
that will draw the line like Joshua did. He said, "All 
of you who are on God's side come over here." Have 
a courage like Luther's. When he proposed to attend 
the Diet at Worms he was told he would end at the 
stake. He said that would not hinder him from en- 
tering the Diet. They showed him the picture of a 
man who was being burned at the stake; but he re- 
plied, "I would go into Worms if I knew every tile 
upon the houses was a devil." Joshua was righting 
the Amalekites, and he saw the sun going down the 
western hill, and he said, "O God, if I had time I 
would rout this army and drive them from the field; ' 
and God said to the sun, " Do n't move an inch till 1 
have routed this army." And the old sun rested 
himself till the army of the Israelites had won the. 
victory. 

Now, what rock will fit right down here without so 
much as the sound of a hammer? It is knowledge. 
There are many things not worth knowing; but my 
heart and will are in a receptive mood all the time to 
catch all that affects God and my fellow-men. Know 
the right and study it. The best legislator is the man 
who knows most about this blessed book. Thank God 
for this book! And I tell you the more you know of 
this book the more you know of right. I bless God 
for this divine revelation, given to teach man the way 
to heaven God did not teach man the way to lieu v. 



262 Sermons and Sayings. 



en; but he directs us to search the book for it, to 
study to know the Master's will, and do it every day. 
The lawyer who should hang out his shingle and 
not know any more about Coke and Lyttleton and 
Blackstone's Commentaries than the average Chris- 
tian does about the Bible, would n't he be a lav yer ! 
Suppose a doctor did not read medical books any more 
than the average Christian studies his Bible. He 
would only have about two patients; and the under- 
taker would take them. Many infidels, who have stud- 
ied the Bible just to argue regarding it, know more 
about it than most Christians do. 

To knowledge add temperance. It is the regulating 
force of life. It is temperance that makes me the 
same all the time. A religion that makes me as good 
in one place as in another is the religion that endures. 
What we want is a Christianity that will keep us re- 
ligious everywhere. Religion is uncompromising, un- 
bending loyalty to God. Have you got that kind of 
religion? Faith to believe, courage of your convic- 
tions, knowledge of the word of God — have you the 
temperance that will endure? You want a religion 
that is as good in adversity as in prosperity, as good 
in sickness as in health. May God give us that tem- 
perance that will regulate us in all the affairs of life! 
I am called a fanatic on this question. I have got this 
thing down just to this point: that the man who drinks 
whisky is a fool, and the man who sells it is a rascal. 
My life has taught me that if I drink it I am a fool; 
arid you are made out of the same dirt I am. I do n't 
say idiot; but in that one thing you are fearfully like 
a fool, and nobody but a rascal will sell it. A man in 
Georgia took me up on that, and said it was not prof- 



Sermons and Sayings. 263 



fctfffte [ just told him to come and walk about with 
me awh.-le and let 's look into the matter, and he 
would n't go. Hence the retail dealers are the gentle- 
mem and the legislators who sit here and legalize it 
are the blackguards and vagabonds. But God will 
put the bar-keeper and the legislator in hell together. 
Whisky is whisky, and if a thousand gallons are 
wrong, a drop is wrong; and it won't be ten years 
hence when the State of Georgia will be a prohibition 
State. I may not be preaching about the things that 
interest you all, but you chose the preacher, and I 
have the right to choose the subject. No, my friends, 
this is a question of the damnation of too many of 
our children; and we can never put this accursed 
thing out of the country as long as the legislators 
wink and smile at it. " We put ourselves squarely on 
this issue." Say that to your people. I am afraid 
you made a mistake in passing a law for a constitu- 
tional amendment instead of a general local option 
law. 

Now, what shall we add to temperance? In build- 
ing, the next stone we lay is patience. What a noble 
virtue patience is! Nothing astonishes me so much 
as God's infinite patience toward man. If we had a 
little more patience in this world, what a bright world 
it would be! The Lord have mercy upon the man 
who is a bear toward his wife! Just think of a good, 
gentle, kind, painstaking woman who has a snarling, 
snappish husband; and some patient, good, kind man 
who — O my! One brother who had that kind of a 
wife said if he ever does get to heaven he '11 be among 
the mortals who got there through much tribulation. 
G'od pity fathers or mothers who are brutal toward 



Sekmons and Sayings, 



their children! They know not the enormity of their 
crime. There are those here in this congregation who 
sit in their seats and look as if they were so kind and 
gentle and patient — as if they only needed a pair of 
Tings to go up, up, up. I can tell a feigned look 
roin a natural look as easily as I can distinguish 
a painted cheek from one of natural color. Don't 
assume an air of innocence. The man who is cross 
to his wife and children goes to church and has fits 
because some one laughs in church. He 'd better go 
home and begin snarling again. 

What rock will fit next? Godliness. The likeness 
of God in character. O how much we are unlike God! 
Can we ever bear the likeness of God ? Not until we 
are made over again from head to foot. We have to 
be new creatures in Christ Jesus. Think of the av- 
erage Tennessee legislator being like God! Some of 
you are more like demijohns. You come here to make 
laws for the people, and you drink whisky and stag- 
ger along these streets until you would disgrace the 
chain-gang. You go home and tell the good people 
you misrepresent that you are the biggest fraud and 
humbug that ever disgraced a respectable Legislature. 
Godliness! Let the good men who are here be more 
and more like God. 

Add to godliness brotherly kindness. That would 
bring your minds to bear upon the problems that 
would work out the best interests of your State. 1 
hope to see the day when Tennessee will have a house 
of refuge for young boys, and stop putting them into 
the state-prison. Do the right thing to all men in 
brotherly kindness and love. " Do unto others as you 
i*ould have them do unto you" is the golden rule. 



Sermons and Sayings. 265 



which applies to legislators as much as to other peo- 
ple. What a grand opportunity you have to do good 
to your fellow-men, and to advance the benevolent 
work of your great State as well as her great agricult- 
ural, commercial, mining, and manufacturing inter- 
ests! But you will not do this unless brotherly kind- 
ness is an element of your own character. It must be 
built into your heart, your disposition, and life. The 
highest Christian manhood is as necessary for the 
law-maker as it is for the preacher, the statesman, the 
Governor. What a blessing to a State when every 
officer, from the Governor down, is a man of faith, 
virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, 
brotherly kindness, and charity! 

The key-stone of the arch is charity.' This is the 
best rock of all. God gives us plenty of this sort of 
material to build with. We must have it all along. 
It is said to be the bond of perfectness. You think 
that only Christian people need charity; but no men 
need it more than politicians; for, as a general thing, 
they have neither brotherly kindness nor charity for 
those who differ with them upon questions of State 
policy. You build your character according to this 
book, and you will be true and grand men anywhere; 
and you follow the teachings of this book, and you will 
never get into trouble about any thing. When 1 
preached in the penitentiary I told the poor fellowa 
that if they had followed the teachings of this book 
they would never have been there; and now I tell you 
legislators if you will follow this blessed book yon 
will never go to the penitentiary or to the final pris- 
on-house of the damned. Some of you may now be 
heading for both places; but God's mercy can reacb 



2G6 Sermons and Sayings. 



yoa, and God's grace can furnish you botli the basis 
and material for building the grandest Christian char- 
acter. 



SAYINGS 

Tell the people and the papers to pitch in; I am 
-*ble to "tote my own skillet." 

The man who doubts is like an engine without steam 
or wheels ; the man who believes is like an engine with 
both. 

The devil is just about satisfied with a Christian 
who will do things in New York that he would not do 
at home. 

While in Nashville I let down my bucket so deep 
that it stirred the mud. It was my bucket, but Nash- 
ville's mud. 

I have known preachers who looked as sad and sol- 
emn as if their Father in heaven was dead, and had n't 
left them a cent. 

A teain that makes no noise, raises no dust, kills 
no stock, and disturbs nobody, will never draw any 
freight, or carry any passengers, or go anywhere. 

The matter of Church doctrine is an accident. If 
my mother and Brother Witherspoon's had swapped 
babies, he would have been a Methodist preacher. 



SERMON XIX. 

For Him or Against Him— The Best Wine at the 

Last. 

"But thou hast kept the good wine until now." (John ii. 10.) 
" He that is not with me is against me ; and he that gathereth not 
with me scattereth abroad." (Matt. xii. 30.) 

%$F you will look in the second chapter and tenth 
j [ verse of the Gospel by St. John, you will find these 
* words: "But thou hast kept the good wine until 
now." I would have a better text if I were to select 
this one : " The wages of sin is death, but the gift of 
God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." 
But I take the first because it is illustrative of some- 
thing I would show you to-night. I feel to-night, my 
brethren, that I must preach to you just as if I had 
sat down on a log out in the woods to talk to one man. 
Let us reason together about the momentous ques- 
tion that brings this great congregation together 
night after night and day after day. There are two 
questions which inevitably come up between the em- 
ployer and the employe, between the servant and his 
master, between the hireling and the man who em- 
ploys him. There can be no such thing as a contract 
for labor without the asking and the answering of 
these two questions. If you seek to employ a man for 
a day, for an hour, for a year, the first question will be, 
"What kind of work do you want me to do?" and the 
next question inevitably, and just as legitimately, wi]] 
be, " What will you pay me for it ? " Now, we say thes? 

("267^ 



2G8 Sermons and Sayings. 



questions lie at the very basis of all contracts for la- 
bor — "What kind of work?" and "What will you pay 
me for it?" We boast of tke fact that we live in the 
freest government the world ever saw— a government 
which guarantees to every man his life, his liberty, 
and his property. But there is a very important sense 
in which we are all laborers, and have our masters — an 
important sense in which pay-day is coming. The first 
thing necessary is to ask, "Whose servant am I?" 
The Lord Jesus Christ said: "To whom ye yield your- 
selves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom 
ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience 
unto righteousness. " He said again on this point : " No 
man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the 
one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, 
and despise the other." It would be a good thing for 
you club members of the Church to listen along here. 
I never could understand how a man could be a loyal 
Union soldier, fighting in the ranks of the Union Army, 
when he has a powder-factory down here in the Con- 
federacy, manufacturing powder for the rebels. You 
will get. me into mysteries, may be. I do n't like that, 
"Are you never going to let up on that club?" No, 
God bless you; I am like the old preacher who 
preached on repentance once; next time he preached 
on repentance, and again on repentance. One of the 
old stewards took him out and asked him: "Is that the 
only sermon you have? you have preached that the 
third time." The preacher asked him, "Have all the 
people repented?" "No; but they want something 
besides pie to eat." "I cannot find any better text as 
long as they are not all converted." Thank God, one 
member of the club is moving! He said: "I will giv« 



Sermons and Sayings. 269 



one thousand dollars toward paying for that building 
for the Young Men's Christian Association, and dis- 
solve the club. He is getting better. I know some 
more of them who are packing up to emigrate. God 
bless you, "git!" If I should do nothing else here 
in two weeks' preaching but bring my brethren out 
of the clubs, I will have done a great work in your 
city . Show me a member of that club who has been 
at work with sinners in this meeting. Where is he ? 
"No man can serve £ wo masters; for either he will hate 
the one, and love the other ; or else he will hold to the 
one, and despise the other." Now, I speak it once 
for all: I have no objection to any man joining the 
club if he is not a member of any Christian Church, 
but it is my brethren in Christ Jesus that I am after. 
That is my doctrine. I have not said, and will not 
say, a thing against any man in that club who is not 
a member of the Church. You who are not a member 
of the Church are at home there. I am just sorry for 
your wife; that is all. Poor woman! she has been 
half clubbed to death, and I reckon you will finish her 
before you get through. One of the members said to 
me, "Go on shelling them, and I think I can get out." 
I am just saying this for his benefit, and he is getting 
it. And if we can pull one out every service, we are 
getting along swimmingly. 

Hear, hear: "No man can serve two masters; for 
either he will hate the one, and love the other; or 
else he will hold to the one, and despise the other." 
That is it. He drew the line a little closer than that 
when he said: "He that is not with me is against me; 
and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad." 
Let me tell you, there is no middle ground here. Ev 



270 Sermons and Sayings. 



ery man, woman, and child is either squarely out on 
God's side, or he is on the other side. I wish we 
could get Christian people to see that. St. Paul said, 
"I have fought a good fight." He had come over on 
the right side. I want a fellow clear over from the 
dead-line, so that when he falls he will fall right. 
Every day God whispers in my ears: "If you fight, I 
will help you; and if you conquer, I will crown you." 
You have lots of men in this city who are neither 
good nor bad. You ask them if they are bad. " No, 
sir." Good? "No, sir." They are goody-goody fel- 
lows; they are not worth ten cents a dozen in any 
market in heaven, earth, or hell — neither on the Lord's 
side nor the devil's side. They are like those prohi- 
bitionists we have down in Georgia. I have been 
among them up to my chin. I have struck fellows 
square out in favor of prohibition, and others square 
out against it; but these fellows have friends on both 
sides. They are the fellows I told you about when I 
was here before. They have a little cotton string, with 
a rib or two tied to it, and call that a backbone. No, 
sir; when I was on the devil's side, I was on his side 
all over; and now when I tell my God that I am on 
his side, and on the side of his Church, with my name 
put down, then I say to you every passion of my soul, 
every faculty of my mind, every muscle of my body, 
has been on God's side from that time to this. None of 
your little tweedledam-tweedledee business about mo. 
Give God soldiers who are always ready for the fight, 
and always on the good side. There is no neutral 
ground here. " Mr. So and So is not a Church-mem- 
ber, and he is a good man." Show me one good man 
who does n't belong to the Church. I have been hunt- 



Sermons and Sayings. 271 



ing for him for twelve years. I asked a gentleman 
on the train, "How are you getting on religiously?" 
He said he didn't belong to any Church; that a man 
can be as good out of the Church as he can in it. I 
said to him, "Just name me one good man out of the 
Church." He thought awhile, and then said, "Me! 
me!" Said I: "Have you got so low down an opin- 
ion of the Church as to think that such a fellow as 
you are is as good as any member in the Church ? " 
I tell you, brethren, the very essence of moral hei\>- 
ism, and the very essence of loyalty, is to take sides. 
Joshua drew the line, and said: "All of you who are on 
God's side, come over here." Which side are you on? 
You are on neither side. "I am not a Christian, and 
I am not a sinner." You are a moral monstrosity; 
that is what you are. If this town is cursed by any 
class it is cursed by these men who are neither good 
nor bad. Old Goody-goody! You ought to hear his 
wife talk about him: "I just tell you, Brother Jones, 
he is the best man you ever saw." It seems like she 
has gone into partnership with the devil, to get her 
husband to hell systematically. You need not come 
around me bragging about the old carcass; you won't 
make any thing off of me. I say, my brethren, let 
every man of us to-night define our position. We 
are with the Lord or against him. There is no such 
thing as neutral ground. I wish every clever man in 
this city could see it. There are hundreds of men 
in this town just as kind-hearted as they can be who 
won't take a stand. There are men who hear my voice 
this moment whom I would want for my executors 
if I were to die in this city I believe you are hon- 
est, upright, and noble. I wish these men would tak> 



272 Sermons and Sayings. 



a stand for God. Why don't you? You seem to be 
selling out to the devil for nothing and boarding your- 
selves. That is cheap. You noble men of this city, 
whose honor is as sacred as the character of your 
wives, bless you, do n't dilly-dally with your conscience. 
Let us be true, and say: "I will come out and servo 
my God. I will take a stand, and do it in the pres- 
ence of God and men and angels." Let us be men; 
and if we take a stand, let us die there. To me the 
saddest picture in life is that man sitting out there, 
who was once a member of the Church, who joined 
the hosts of God twenty years ago, deserted the ranks, 
went over to the devil, and is now working tooth and 
toe-nail for hell. What would you think of a Con- 
federate soldier during the late war who, after having 
fought one month, two years, three years, took off the 
gray and went over to the enemy and donned the 
blue? There is a man who once stood in the ranks 
of God, and now he has deserted the ranks of God, 
and is in the devil's ranks belching death into the 
ranks of God. Come back, brother, and God will 
take you like a fresh recruit, and make you into 
a true soldier of the cross. Five hundred persons 
who hear my voice are out now. You are on the 
side of the Lord God of hosts, or against him. 
Those who are on the Lord's side keep his com- 
mandments. That is the test. If you do n't, you are 
not a servant of the Lord. If a man is not a servant 
of. the Lord, he is a servant of the devil. Will you 
go to your spiritual master, the devil, and ask him 
what kind of work he wants you to do? The kind of 
work he wants you to do is to swear, drink, gamble, de- 
bauch your body in wickedness, and make your wife, 



Sermons and Sayings. 273 



your mother and children and neighbors, think less 
of you. He wants you to do that which will degrade 
you in your own eyes, and damn you forever. That 
is the kind of work the devil wants fellows to do, and 
you have been hard at work for him until you have 
neither friends, money, nor character. What are the 
wages? Misery, anguish, and damnation in the end. 
That is what a man gets in the service of the dovil. 
I was preaching in my own charge once when I said 
to an old sinner that had repented: " Get up here and 
tell these people what you have received for sixty-five 
years in the service of the devil." He would not do 
so, and afterward said: " Brother Jones, if I had got 
up and told those people what I had done, I would 
have frightened them. I have a hard, stiff neck, and 
a godless family, and no hope at all that I ever will 
be saved." It was the living experience of a man 
talking right before my face. What does that mother 
mean when she sings, "Where is my wandering boy 
to-night?" Where is he who sold out soul and body 
to the devil, is ruined on earth, has broken his moth- 
er's heart, and wrung tears from the eyes of loved 
ones — all to reap damnation in the end? Is that so? 
You ought to know; you have tried it. What does 
the man get who serves the Lord? What kind of 
work does the Lord want done? He wants you to love 
mercy, do justly, work righteousness, and speak the 
truth in your heart. He wants you to bear the fruit of 
the Spirit, to do those things that will make your wife 
and children and neighbors love you more. What 
is the pay? Enough cash to live on every day; and 
when you get so old you can't work any more, God 
takes you up and gives you a home in heaven. How 
18 



274 Sermons and Sayings. 



is it that the devil has a servant in this city txv 
night? 

I take this text because it is illustrative of God's 
economy and the devil's economy in dealing with soulsc 
It is the devil's economy to give the best wine first. 
God's plan is to give the worst first, and it gets better 
and better through all eternity. The devil gets a poor 
sinner just on the principle that the poor old drunk- 
ard, with his digestive organs burned out, takes one 
more drink to brace him up. The devil gives the best 
first, and entraps us that way. Let me illustrate: 
When I crossed the line of accountability in my youth 
the devil took me by the hand and led me up into a 
large, capacious palace, adorned with all the pictures 
of earth; and I looked at the elegant furniture and 
beautiful carpets, and I said, "What do you say?'-' 
"If you will be my servant, I will give you all this." 
I looked again, and I thought, "Sure enough, there is 
something here I like — a chair of ease, an offer of con- 
tentment; here is every thing I want." And I took pos- 
session. I walked out and came back, when my chair 
of ease was gone forever. I returned another day, and 
my sofa of contentment was gone, and I never felt so 
well content afterward. Another day, as before, I 
came back, and my table of pleasure was gone, and I 
never had half as much pleasure as I had before. The 
beautiful pictures were gone, another piece of furni- 
ture was gone, one piece of furniture after another was 
gone, and one day the carpets had been taken up and 
removed. What a poor, bare floor it was! I came 
back one day, and two of the windows were removed. 
It was not as light as it was before. One of the doors 
was taken down. I had not as many ways of ingress 



Sermons and Sayings. 275 



and egress as before. Another window was gone on 
the next visit, and the last day I was in that palace 
the last window was removed, the last door was re- 
moved; but when I came out to see my father die I 
never went back again. The last window was gone, 
and the last door was removed, and a visitor told me 
that the walls of the capacious palace were coming 
together; and one night after midnight the walls, he 
said, came together with a crash, and he admitted that 
the wages of sin is death. What a picture! I know 
it is true. O what a picture of my own life in its 
wasteful, prodigal days! My friends, look at this 
picture. Listen how the pleasures of sin beguile us. 
Burns had the right to speak, and I know he was 
right when he said : 

Pleasures are like poppies spread — 
We seize the flower, the bloom is shed ; 
Or like the snow-flake on the river, 
A moment white, then melts forever; 
Or like the rainbow's lovely form, 
Evanishing amid the storm. 

these earthly pleasures, how soon they fade and 
die! Like the apples of Sodom, they turn to ashes iu 
your grasp. Do not follow this ignis fatuus that 
leads you to beguile, and beguiles you but to 
damn. 

I recollect the first time I ever swore. I said: "Now 

1 am a man, almost — I have sworn." I cursed until I 
despised myself for it. I thought, the first dram J 
ever took, "O how exhilarating this cup is! how grand 
it makes me feel!" I drank until I became the most 
loathsome creature that ever cursed a good wife. 1 
am ready to say the devil deceived me at every turn, 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

More About the South. Politics, Religion, 
and People. 

As I have a little leisure time this morning, 
I will take this opportunity and give to the read- 
ers of the "Republican" a few incidents occurring 
since my last letter I wrote you a few weeks ago. 

We were in Winston Salem, N. C, seventeen 
days. During our stay there we were enter- 
tained by an ex-Confederate captain, who had a 
lovely house, and a more hospitable man I never 
met. He was a Christian gentleman of the high- 
est type. His father was the owner of one thou- 
sand slaves when the war closed, and the big 
mansion still stands and is in good repair. It 
is antique, but gives every appearance of much 
cost in by-gone years. They were members of 
the Southern aristocracy and no doubt enter- 
tained many royal guests. I was told George 
Washington visited this place at the time he was 
President. 

The Moravians are some of the early Chris- 
276 



Politics, Rdugion, and Peopi^. 277 

tians of this country and still abound in great 
numbers. They are the same class of people who 
gave John Wesley light on experimental salva- 
tion. They were on a ship at sea in a storm, 
singing and praising God without fear. This 
was a rebuke to John Wesley. Though he was a 
preacher and a missionary, he saw they had 
something he did not have, and like every honest 
preacher should do, he confessed his lack and in 
a short while found the Pearl of Great Price. 
This was the secret of the success of this great 
man's life. If we had more preachers like John 
Wesley, that would seek and find salvation, they 
would have much greater success in their lines. 
Too many of them are up in the sycamore-tree, 
that don't want to come down to receive the 
Lord Jesus Christ. They want to spend their 
time with a telescope viewing for claims in Mer- 
cury and Mars, when God's Word plainly tells 
them of two other countries, one of which they 
are sure to go to. You don't see much honey on 
their lips. They are spending too much time with 
Latin verbs, Hebrew phrases, splitting Greek 
roots and superintending church machinery — 
Endeavors, Leagues, associations, aids, concerts, 
gymnasiums, reading circles, busy bees, broom 
drills, etc., and not a soul saved. Perhaps a few 



278 Sermons and Sayings. 



Better and better, and still there are more to follow. 
The first cup God gave St. Paul it threw hirn down 
in the road, and he was stricken stone blind, and he 
was blind for three days. A few years after that, Paul 
was caught up into the third heaven. When at last 
the angels looked down from the jasper walls and 
pearly gates, and saw him in that dungeon at Rome 
writing his last letter to Timothy, saying, "I have 
fought a good fight," then he looked up and said: 
"There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, 
which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at 
that day." If we had St. Paul down here to-night to 
conclude for us, and tell us just what he has had since 
he put that crown on, we would all go home shouting. 
I am busy most of my time, but sometimes I sit down 
and think about what is ahead. What will it be ahead? 
Better and better and better! 

These have been precious days to me here in your 
city. I have not been surprised. Before I kissed 
my wife good-by, I believed it would be this way as 
much as if I had seen it. I saw the Lord was hold- 
ing the devil out here by the tail, and letting him kick 
himself to death, and I am mighty happy over it. If 
the devil has made a track in this town since, I have 
not seen it. I love to contemplate the great future 
before the Christian. I love to contemplate what is 
ahead. No wonder the apostle said: "Eye hath not 
seen nor ear heard the things that God hath in store 
for them that love him." Lord Jesus Christ, entice 
us hea\enward to-night! I want to get there. Breth- 
ren, if at last I fail, and God says, "Depart, ye 
cursed," I will turn and walk off the worst disap- 
pointed man that ever turned his back on heaven, 



Sermons and Sayings. 279 



My money is all in this bank, and, blessed be God, it 
can never break. If there is a muscle of my body or 
a passion of my soul that does not belong to God, I 
am willing to dispose of it this moment. Lord, 
help me to be thine forever, and thine wholly! I am 
a sane man, brethren, and have never before declared 
my position; here and now I settle it once and for- 
ever: I will be the Lord's. Will you say it? How 
many members of the Church here to-night will stand 
up and say, "Whatever may have been the mistakes 
of the past, I stand and say, Now, Lord, I give myself 
whtlly to thee?" How many of God's Church will 
staud up and say this? Now, my brethren and 
friends, I hope every man who expects this side of 
the j adgment-bar of God to make his peace will stand 
up here to-night. 

SAYINGS. 

It takes less sense to criticise than for any thing 
else. There are a great many critics in the lunatic 
asylum. 

What we need in this city and everywhere else, 
is a living, walking, consistent, earnest Christianity 
that can be known and read of all men. 

I CAN somehow stand it to be swallowed by a whale, 
bat to be nibbled to death by minnows is awful; and 
now that the terrapins begin to bite, it is time to wind 
ap the line and quit. 

] would not go back twelve years and take my 

chances, 

. Were this world a golden ball, 
And gems were all the stars of night. 



280 Sermons and Sayings. 



The devil gives the best wine at the first; God 
gives the best wine at the last. 

If I throw a stone into a crowd of dogs, and one 
runs yelping, you know that is the one that is hit. 
When you hear one of these fellows on the street 
yelping at me, you may know he is the dog that is hit. 

I SAW that the Lord was holding the devil out here 
by the tail and letting him kick himself to death, and 
I believed it would be just this way in this city be- 
fore I kissed my wife good-by, and I am happy over it. 

These little fellows that I was going to ship off 
with a two-cent postage-stamp: It would take two 
hundred tons of soothing-sirup to run them. They 
are all babies, and they outcry creation if you do n't 
give them something to soothe them. 

You have lots of men in this city who are neither 
good nor bad. Ask tbem if they are good. "No, 
sir." "Bad?" "No, sir." They are these goody- 
goody fellows. They are not worth ten cents a dozen 
in any market in heaven, earth, or hell. 

Like some so-called prohibitionists I have met with 
down in Georgia, who have friends on both sides of 
the question, there are wishy-washy fellows in the 
Church who have a cotton string run up their backs 
with a few ribs tied to it, and they call it backbone. 
I have been among them up to my chin. 



SERMON XX. 

Ways of Pleasantness. 

" Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.' 
(Prov. iii. 17.) 

HIS is the last service we hold together as evan- 
gelist and people. I want it to be a service of 
power. There are mingled feelings of joy and 
sadness that I can't express in words. There are 
things I love to contemplate. I love to contemplate 
the congregations of heaven that ne'er break np and 
the Sabbaths that have no end. I am grateful to God 
that I was ever permitted to come to this city. I nev- 
er felt so small in all my life. Some talk about the diz- 
zy heights. I am lying flat on my back on the ground. 
I never want to get off the ground. The way up is 
down. I am on this grand old ship. I will never 
jump overboard. I am going to walk out on the banks of 
eternal deliverance. I have counted the cost; I have sur- 
veyed the field. I purposely, deliberately, intelligent- 
ly put all my capital in this bank. I will never check 
it out until I get into heaven. It will be given to me 
forever and ever. I want every man who is unde- 
cided to decide to-night. I want you to act to-night. 
A decision to go to Louisville is not worth a cent un- 
less it takes you down to the train and puts you on 
board. You might decide to go to Louisville every 
hour in the day, but that decision is not worth any 
thing until you put yourself on the train. A man tola 
me last night he had decided to join the Church 

(281) 



282 Sermons and Sayings. 



"Well, walk up and join it then," I said. "I ain't 
ready," he answered. Yon have not decided. That is 
it. The best evidence that a man has decided to go to 
Louisville is that you see him on the train about five 
minutes before it starts. Some of you are waiting for 
feeling. You have waited through the best meeting 
you ever saw, and here you are to-night waiting, get- 
ting on grandly! coming along swimmingly! I am not 
inquiring whether I feel like I am going home, but I 
am inquiring if the train leaves at a certain time. I 
don't look at my feelings when I am on the train, 
but I listen to train-men calling out the stations. 
When I hear them call out " Murfreesboro," I know 
that, feeling or no feeling, I am on my way home. 
When they call out " Tullahoma," I know that is an- 
other station on my journey, feeling or no feeling. 
When they call out " Chattanooga," I know, feeling or 
no feeling, that I am ninety miles from home. Only 
when a fellow starts to the good world he leaves off 
his sins and starts with the means of grace, and all 
you need to inquire about is, "What are the stations 
on the way?" The first station is "Repentance." 
That is a station on the way to heaven, feeling or no 
feeling. The next station is the "Church of God," 
feeling or no feeling. The brakeman cries out, 
"Brotherly Love!" I like that. That is one of the 
grandest stations on the way to God. Do you know 
that? Next I find myself at the station of "Complete 
Consecration." That is a magnificent station. I 
would n't mind stopping a day or two there; but I run 
on to the next station, that of "Family Prayer." I 
would like to abide there a day or two. I have been 
looking up the stations all along the way. They are 



Sermons and Sayings. 283 



all good. The devil goes about preaching feeling; God 
preaches faith. The Bible doesn't say "Whosoever 
feels," but "Whosoever will." Do you see that? When 
a fellow has got feeling, and nothing but feeling, I al- 
ways think may be it is something he has eaten. Feel- 
ing is the lowest element in religion. True religion is 
not feeling; but religion is a principle. It is a grand 
principle underlying every stratum of human life, and 
keeps a man straight. That is it. 

If we are farmers, let us plow and plant, and let 
God rain and shine. Let us do our part, and let the 
Lord attend to his own business. Now, will you start 
to heaven? God says, " Choose ye this day whom ye 
will serve." Well, if God tells me to choose whom I 
will serve, I will make a choice. I will not serve the 
devil any longer, but I will from this day forth serve 
God. How can a man be damned when he is doing 
just what God told him to do? If I had a bad boy, 
and he had been off cursing and lying and living in 
rebellion against me, I want that boy to come up to me 
and say, "I have been doing wrong." "Are you sorry 
enough to quit? " If he says he is, "That is enough, 
my son. Give me your hand. I love you. Come to 
my arms." That is all I ask. I will attend to the 
rest. God is my Father. I am his child. Let us 
strip the mystery from this question, and let us meet 
the issue like men. If there is any thing the Lord 
has to do before yoa can go to heaven, I will go his 
security. I say it reverently. The Lord will attend to 
his part if you attend to yours. When I started to 
heaven I had no more religion than a calf. I was as 
mean, as completely rebellious, as any man ever was. 
If there was any thing the devil wanted me to do that 



284 Sermons and Sayings. 



I didn't do, it was because I didn't know how. But I 
made the promise to my father on his death-bed that 
I would meet him in heaven, and every step since has 
been toward the good world. Many things have hap- 
pened since then. My, my! there have been some big 
times. You start to-night, even if you are the mean- 
est fellow in town, and some things will happen before 
next week. That ain't-got-any-feelin' and fittin' busi- 
ness is a trick of the devil to catch sinners, and he is 
catching them. Thank God, we also are catching many 
of them! Christ told his disciples he would make 
them fishers of men. I recollect when I was a boy I 
used to go fishing. I have sat on the banks of a stream 
three, four, and five hours, and at last pulled out a big 
perch, then a big trout, and after a little while longer 
a big cat-fish. Finally the minnows would begin to 
bite. Then I would jerk and jerk, and they would get 
my bait. I have been troubled with them here. At 
last the minnows would quit biting, and my cork would 
turn over on the water; then I would pull out, and there 
would be an old terrapin. Then I would take in my 
tackle and go home. I see by the town papers that 
the terrapins are beginning to bite. I believe one of 
these terrapins is named " Skylark." I wish he would 
come up here and let us take a look at him and see his 
little terrapin head. It is time to quit fishing when 
the terrapins begin to bite. Fishermen of men, if you 
will watch now in this town for the next three weeks 
you will see that the terrapins will be a-nibbling 
Now, you watch them. Take my utterances since 1 
have been in this town, and if I have not been square 
to God, to truth, and to right, it is because I did n't 
know it. If I have not given wrong in all of its as- 



Sermons ana Sayings. 285 

pects my attention, I do n't know what I am talking 
about. I am down on wrong. I do n't like the wrong. 
When yon hear a fellow on the street express himself 
against me, ask him if he ever stole any thing, or ever 
got drunk, or how many wives he has. You won't 
have to ask him more than five questions until you will 
tree him; for if a man's life is right, what quarrel has 
he got with me? You nom de plume gentlemen, rack 
out over your own signatures. You are afraid to do 
that. I want you to give your heart to God and come 
up here and join the Church to-night, and let us go 
to heaven together. I say to you: "My brother, I 
love you, and would like to see you changed from a 
terrapin into a great big trout." Now, this change is 
a sort of preface to what we propose to say, and the 
prelude may be longer than what will follow. 

We invite your attention to these words — listen: 
"Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths 
are peace." The Christian life is often spoken of 
as a way, and we are spoken of as walking in that 
way. We have it before us to-night as a plain decla- 
ration of the word of God that the Christian life is a 
way of pleasantness, and all its paths are paths of 
peace. iVs difficult as the road may seem to you, as 
many obstacles as present themselves* in your way, it 
is ten thousand times easier to be a Christian than to 
be a sinner and go down to hell. The sinner has a 
hard road. Sometimes he has to go over a broken- 
hearted wife, and against a poor, weeping, gray-headed 
mother's prayers, and trample on his own convictions 
of right, and overleap the highest mountains of grace, 
to make his way to hell, while the Christian can find 
a level path leading all the way to God. I want to 



280 Sermons and Sayings. 



talk a little out of my own experience, and out of this 
book; for if I can't bring this book down to my expe- 
rience, and my experience up to this book, you may 
burn it up — it is not worth any thing to me. Bring 
the book down to a level with me, or bring me up to 
the level of the book — then it is God's book to me. If 
I am starting on a journey, it is worth something to 
know that I shall have strength and ability for the 
whole trip. Many invalids start South in December, 
and die in Atlanta or Macon. They die before they 
reach, the land of sun and flowers. How many of 
them on their return to their homes stop off and die! 
It would be sad to know that I may not have strength 
to go through. It is a grand trip — the trip to heaven 
— it is a grand journey. Every Christian starts from 
the beginning with the consciousness that he will have 
strength to make the whole trip. 

I believe in final perseverance, thank God! You 
know what final perseverance means. It is just catch 
hold, and hold on and never tarn loose. I am going 
to persevere to the end, God being my helper. God 
has promised that all things necessary shall be pro- 
vided for me along the way. I do n't know whether I 
shall have strength to get through preaching or not, but 
thank God I know I have strength enough to get to heav- 
en! I do n't know whether my physical frame will en- 
able me to go to Georgia, but if next week does n't find 
me at home it will find me in heaven. I shall have 
strength to make every step of the road to the celestial 
city. Thank God for that sweet consciousness! It is 
worth all the world to me. It is worth a good deal 
when a traveler starts on a journey to have all need- 
ful accommodations along the way. A great many way? 



Sermons and Sayings. 287 



are unpleasant for the want of good accommodations 
along the road. At every eating-house along this way 
you will find heaven's bread and angel's food. David 
said : " He prepareth a table before me in the presence 
of mine enemies; he anointeth my head with oil; my 
cup runneth over." There never was a call for a phy- 
sician that didn't mean something; and some of these 
days, and may be before thirty days from to-day, a doc- 
tor will be called to you, and he will visit you about 
ten days, and then there will be black crape on the 
front door. God grant that he who sends for the doc- 
tor first may be prepared ! David said, " He prepareth 
a table." Thank God, there is not one of them that 
fear the Lord that suffer along the way ! I find every 
needful accommodation all along. " I have never seen 
the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." 
It is worth something to know that the eating-houses 
hold out all the way. It is worth a great deal to a 
man that is about to take a journey to have a good 
God on the way. Thank God, I have a good God 
with me and the angels of God encamping round 
about me at night! Thank God for a good God to 
go with me in every hour of peril, to protect me and 
to shield me so that no danger shall come in reach 
of me! 

Bunyan's old pilgrim looked ahead on the road 
apiece and saw a lion. He was standing by the path, 
shaking his shaggy mane and flashing his cruel eyes \ 
with a vengeance. The pilgrim was told to go right 
in the middle of the path. The lion was chained, and 
could not get a paw on the path. Right in the middle 
of the path of duty there is no power in earth or hell 
that can harm you; but you had better mind how yor> 



288 Sermons and Sayings. 



take to the bushes along the way — there is danger 
there! It helps to make the journey pleasant also to 
hare a good guide — one that knows the way. This 
Divine Power, that leads men the first step, and on and 
on, knows the way from earth to heaven. He knows 
every fork, and he says: "Take my hand, and I will 
lead you in paths of righteousness." Thank God that 
while there are ten thousand by-paths leading to hell, 
there is one road that leads to heaven! Will you take 
this Guide to be your guide? Will you lift your head 
ap in the dark and say, " Father, take my hand and 
*ead me in the paths of righteousness? " Yes, I have 
a good Guide to go with me. You have been trying 
to find the way by yourselves. There are too many 
cross-roads and forks. Get a guide. Holy Spirit, heav- 
enly Guide, take possession of us to-night, and lead us 
all the way! It is worth something to the traveler 
to know that he will have daylight all the way. I have 
traveled at night when it has been so dark I was 
afraid my horse might run up against something and 
break my buggy. Thank God, in this trip from earth 
to heaven you have daylight all the way! You are a 
child of light; you shall not walk in the darkness. 
A road is easy to travel in the day-time. A preacher 
once came to my house. The mud was twelve or 
eighteen inches deep. When he arrived he said: "I 
thought I would never get out here; I had an awful 
time." Next morning he got on his horse, and in the 
daylight he could ride along on the high and dry 
places. Look here, sister, you get off in the dark and 
mud, and you have a time of it. You have to stop to 
pull one foot out of the mud, and then the other gets 
in deeper. I like this daylight business. Thank God 



Sermons and Saiings. 289 



for the light shining on my pathway all the length of 
the celestial road! Sister, if you want light, get up 
on this way. Then, it helps to make a journey pleasant 
if you have got far to go to have good company on the 
way. I feel here now something like Simon Peter felt 
on the Mount of Transfiguration. I would like to 
complete the tabernacle, and live with you forever. If 
I had let my head work out this problem, I would be 
here in a pleasant home. God bless you, I have had noth- 
ing but good company! That fellow that said he could 
ship all the Christians in Nashville to Atlanta with 
a two-cent postage-stamp — I tell him he then told the 
biggest lie he ever told in his life. For fear some 
might read that in the paper and think I said it, I will 
say that I never said that, or any thing like it. I said 
I could send about five hundred of you little fellows, 
but not one of your first-class members, and you have 
got a heap more of them now than you had then. Ev- 
ery Christian man on his way to heaven has a great 
deal of good company to go with him. Your preach- 
ers have good company. The members of the Church 
have good company. Thank God for every good man 
on the face of this earth! I may never look in your 
face any more, but every man and woman here will be 
company for me journeying on through life to heaven. 
Thank God for good company! To the unconverted 
let me say: "Join this company — this holy, happy 
band. They have said, ' Come and go with us. 1 Join 
them to-night, and go with us through to the celestial 
city. Won't you ? " Then, it helps to make the journey 
pleasant to know that the way lies through green past- 
ures and beside still waters. David says, " He maketh 
me to lie down in green pastures." At times we can 
19 



29C Sekmons and Sayings. 



recline on the ground, then we can walk on, and then 
run through the pastures on our way to God. Thank 
God for the pools on the way-side! The Baptists are 
in charge of these pools, but they are mighty liberal. 
You can get all the water you want. And there are 
other Christians that own stock in that pool too. I 
have never known them to be selfish about it. They 
are a liberal, noble people. There is not a pool on the 
way that I would cut a ditch through and dry up. 
Blessed be God, on we go rejoicing! It helps to make 
the journey pleasant to know that it ends well. O 
me! if a man goes on a bad errand, I don't care what 
advantages he may have on the way, he is not happy; 
but if he is on a good errand, nothing can make him 
unhappy. He is looking forward to that blessed hope 
of the glory of the appearance of the Lord Jesus 
Christ. The greatest delight of my life is in some- 
times looking ahead. In my past life I have taken 
my eyes off of the blessed hope. I got to thinking in 
this way: "You had better go back to law for a few 
years, and then come back and go to preaching again. 
You love your wife and your children, and you wish 
to see them comfortable and happy. What harm is 
there in going back to law and working to get a com- 
petency, and then resume preaching?" But, thank 
God, when I get my eyes back on that blessed hope, 
this world whittles down until it is about as small as 
a rubber ball under my feet! Suppose you owned the 
whole State of Tennessee — what is that compared to 
the United States? Suppose you owned the whole 
United States — what is that compared to the world? 
Suppose you owned the whole world — you could put 
two such worlds as this in your vest-pocket, go up and 



►Sermons and Sayings. 291 



spend a night at the Dog Star, and yon wouldn't have 
enough to pay your hotel bill in the morning. A poor 
fool, running after the world and taking hold of the 
world ! You turn this old world loose and make heav- 
Qn your inheritance. 

If your father owned the world, and all the stars, 
and every thing else, would you consider yourself 
poor? Sir, I am a joint heir of his only-begotten Son. 
My Father is rich in houses and lands, and promises me 
"an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, and 
that fadeth not away." There is room enough in par- 
adise to give us all a home in glory. Thank God, 
when I get there I am done being poor white folks 
forever! When I get there I am done with tears for- 
ever. I have cried many a time. I have been some- 
times where if I could not have cried I would almost 
have died. I have said if these tears will pass away 
I shall be in peace. By and by they will be wiped 
away forever. "He shall wipe away all tears from 
their eyes forever." I was once sitting in the house 
with a mother, when in came the sweetest little daugh- 
ter. She was crying as if her heart would break. 
" O mamma, I can't help it! " The tears would fill her 
eyes again, and she said, "O mamma, I can't help it! " 
Directly the precious mother pulled the sobbing child 
up to her lap, and put her daughter's arm on her 
shoulder, and taking her hand she wiped the tears out 
of her eyes. Some of these days, when our feet shall 
strike the golden city, and Christ shall run his hands 
over these eyes, there shall be no more tears forevei-. 
O my brother, this journey ends well! There is a 
world where poor beings will never be tempted any 
more O my temptations, how they crowd around 



292 Sermons and Sayings. 



me! I never felt my grip loosened but once. I could 
feel my grip slipping once. It was the darkest hour 
my soul ever saw. I tightened that grip again, and I 
am clinging to the cross in which my hope rests for- 
ever. It ends well, blessed be God! St. Paul said: 
" The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought 
a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept 
the faith." It ends well. It ends over yonder at the 
resurrection morn. 

I love to go into that cotton factory at Atlanta. 
When walking about through that factory I have felt 
every muscle in my body quiver with the magnificent 
force displayed in the thousands of swiftly flying spin- 
dles and shuttles; but when I go down into that little 
engine-room on the side and see that little engine that 
is doing all the work, and see the machinery obedient 
to the pressure of that little engine, it is all explained. 
It will be a grand sight to me to see my mother and 
my father and all my loved ones rise up from the 
grave, and my wife with the glow of beauty and hue 
of health upon her cheek forever, but it will be a 
grander sight still to see the arm of Christ behind and 
sustaining us all. It ends well, blessed be God! 

I sat there at Atlanta under that car-shed. I am a 
a great lover of engines. I love to ride on them. I 
love to see them moving. Good Lord, let me be in 
thy hands like these engines are in the hands of the 
engineer! I sat there and saw the Western train roll 
in, all greasy and dirty from the trip, trembling under 
the air-brakes. A few minutes later I saw the old 
State Road engine roll in on time, and her passengers 
alight on the platform, dusty and tired from the long 
journey. Then the Central would roll in and deposit 



Sermons and Sayings. 293 



her cargo of humanity. Thus shall I stand at the 
pearly gates and watch the blood-washed souls sweep in 
forever. I want to stand at the gate of heaven and 
watch five million blood- washed souls sweep through 
from this city. We will have time there. Nobody 
tired there, thank God! It ends well. O brethren, 
there are many things I want to see. Sometimes I 
wish I could live on earth until I see certain consum- 
mations. I would like to live to see the day when 
every sinner on the earth shall be converted to God. 
I want to see Thomas Jefferson's face when the last 
government is a republic; I want to see William Penn 
when the last Indian is in possession of the inherit- 
ance of his race; I want to look on the face of Jesus 
when the last sinner has been washed in the blood 
and come home to God; but I will never reach the 
consummation of all my desires until, soul and body, 
I am housed in heaven. The old ship of Zion has 
been making her hourly trips backward and forward 
for six thousand years, bat when that old ship makes 
her last trip to this world, and we all go on board and 
strike up the good old song, and when her keel shall 
strike the banks of eternal deliverance, I shall land to 
live with God forever. Worthy is the Lord Almighty 
to receive all honor and power and dominion forever! 
Blessed Christ, thou art all the world to me, and thy 
glory I shall see. Brethren, let me say to you that I 
am moved as I have never been moved before. If I 
ever get to heaven, and my mother and friends begin 
to congratulate me, I will be like a friend who gets a 
telegram to meet another, but the train has gone. He 
steps on board a grand Rogers engine, and he rolls in 
on time and meets his friend. "I congratulate you," 



294 Sermons and Sayings. 



says his friend, "that you made your trip in so short 
a time." "I had very little to do with this trip. I 
will show you the engine that brought me into town 
ahead of time." If I ever get to heaven, and mother 
throws her arms around my neck and congratulates 
me, I shall say: "Hush, hush, mother, and show me 
the Lord Jesus, and I will show you the grand soldier 
that led me and carried me on his shoulders, and 
brought me all the way to heaven." O Lord, bring 
these men out and save us in the kingdom of heaven 
at last! Before we dismiss this congregation you men 
of thought and intelligence under this tent who will 
say in your conscience, " God being my helper, I will 
stand up and say I will meet you in that bright world 
above," stand up. Will this congregation rise in mass 
and say that and stick to it till God receives you in 
heaven? Bless the Lord! Please be seated. Thank 
God! I want to see all you colored people in heaven, 
and all you white people in heaven, too. 

If any of you have got any objection to a woman 
shouting on her way to God, you are meaner than I 
am. If there ever was a time when a universal shout 
should go to heaven from this city, -it is now. Halle- 
luiah to God! Thank God for the victory! That is 
what shouting means. It means victory. You take a 
soldier and let him go out and fight all day, and is 
driven back by the enemy. That soldier goes into his 
tent and hangs his head. He sallies out to-morrow 
to fight again, and the first thing you know the ene- 
my's ranks break, and he will shout through blood 
and thunder to-day. When a fellow puts the world, 
the flesh, and the devil to flight, he will shout, or, like 
an Indian, he will shout a silent shout deep down in 



Sermons and Sayings. 295 



his soul. Now, brethren, I never felt so grateful in 
my life as j list now. God knows I want every one of 
you who sit in this vast audience, who say you have 
never been received into the Church, to enlist in God's 
army to-night. I would not mislead a human soul to 
save my life. The last thing God ever said to man is 
this, "Whosoever will let him take the water of life 
freely." Will you come out on God's side? This very 
moment decide it if you have never decided it before. 
How many in this vast audience will stand up and say, 
" I shall and do decide to come out on God's side from 
this night?" Not less than a thousand, I hope, will 
stand up and say that. 

I thank you for your generous kindness to me and 
mine. I shall ever carry you in my heart. I want to 
be just as good and efficient in God's service as it is 
possible to be. I want every one of you to pray foi 
me along through life, and we will pray for each other. 
Now, you can understand something about the power. 
You have been analyzing this thing for three weeks. 
If you take this power away from me, I am about the 
weakest, sorriest case you ever saw. Now, after the 
congregation is dismissed, if any want to talk on the 
subject of religion, you take these front seats. 



296 Sermons and Sayings. 



SAYINGS. 
If there is any thing the Lord has to do before you 
can go to heaven, I will go his security. 

Bight in the middle of the path of duty there is no 
power in earth or hell that can harm you; but you had 
better mind how you take to the bushes along the way 
— there is danger there! 

The devil goes about preaching feeling; God preach- 
es faith. True religion is not feeling — that is its lowest 
element; but religion is a grand principle underlying 
every stratum of human life. 

If I can't bring the Bible down to my experience 
and my experience up to the Bible, you may burn it 
up — it is not worth any thing to me. Bring the book 
down to a level with me, or bring me up to the level of 
the book — then it is God's book to me. 

Suppose you owned all of this world — what would 
it be worth to you? You could put two such worlds 
in your vest-pocket, and go up and spend the night on 
the Dog Star, and you would not have enough to pay 
your hotel bill in the morning. You are a poor fool 
to be holding on to this old world and sinking down 
to hell! You turn this world loose and go with us 
to heaven. 




PROHIBITION. 

An Address Before the Georgia State Temper- 
ance Convention. 

E. JONES delivered this address before the 
State Temperance Convention of Georgia at its 
session in Atlanta, June 10, 1885. We give the 
report — with some minor omissions — as it appeared 
in The Constitution of that city: 

I believe liquor is a good thing in its place, and I 
believe its place is in hell. If I were in hell I might 
drink it; but, so help me God, I will never drink it 
again on this earth. The main trouble is with these 
little politicians. They say it won't do to bring this 
question of prohibition into politics; they say it will 
hurt their party. If your party has to ride into 
power on a whisky-barrel, then I say it ought to be 
hurt. I am a Democrat. I was born a Democrat; 
but if you make Democracy mean opposition to sumpt- 
uary laws and friendship to liquor, then I am any 
thing but a Democrat. After all, this thing of poli- 
tics is just a question of the "ins" and "outs." If 
the Radicals get in four years from now, they will 
adopt the good old Democratic cry, " Turn the rascals 
out ! " Some fellows say, " Do n't mix politics with re- 
ligion." When you hear a fellow talk that way, you 
may know he hasn't any religion to mix. I would 
mix religion with politics, but not politics with relig- 
ion. A little religion will help politics; it will make 
it clean and decent. We want truth, justice, and tern- 

(297) 



298 Sekmons and Sayings. 

perance mixed with politics in this State. I spoke to 
the Legislature of Tennessee on this subject the other 
day. They are talking about a constitutional amend- 
ment on the liquor question up there. We want this 
question cleared up beyond the reach of these little 
cross-roads judges, who hop up every now and then 
and say something is unconstitutional. We want to 
do away with such judges, and put decent men of 
brains and character in their places. You can't re- 
form a State with a swill-tub for Governor, and a lot 
of old mash-tubs sitting on the bench. You can't re- 
form a State until you send good men to the Legisla- 
ture. Some men come to every Legislature that meets 
in Georgia who ain't fit to go to the chain-gang. An 
old skunk of a thing staggering around on both sides 
of the street at once is a beautiful Representative! 
There is not a purer, nobler man in Georgia than 
your Governor. There are no better men in Georgia 
than your Supreme Court Judges. I told them in 
Tennessee the other day that you had for a Chief - 
justice in. Georgia a man who would sit up all night 
talking to penitents at the altar. Georgia is all right 
at the top and at the bottom. We want to get her all 
light in the middle; and if you refuse to help sup- 
press the infamous wrong that is being done by 
whisky, you are rotten yourselves. Some of you here 
do n't know me. I speak plainly. I use words you can 
understand. Now, you can take the Latin word "de- 
cayed," and it won't phase a fellow. If you take the 
good old Anglo-Saxon word "rotten," you can cut his 
head off. You see, I choose my words. Of course 
there are always some little spelling-book critics sitting 
around who will go back on a fellow's grammar. I 



Sekmons and Sayings. 299 



should n't mind being swallowed by a whale, but . I 
should hate to be nibbled to death by minnows. 

You have a hundred counties in Georgia where the 
liquor traffic is crippled. ■ In eighty counties there is 
prohibition. I say, Look out for your drug-stores; look 
out for your little cymling-headed doctors. Some of 
them fill their saddle-bags with liquor, and become 
traveling bar-rooms. God pity the doctor who will 
prescribe liquor for a man! I might prescribe it for 
a poor dying woman, but I wouldn't give it to a man 
until he was dead. Whisky is not good for one thing 
in this world for which there is not something else 
that is better. If the time ever comes when they say 
to me, "You '11 die if you do n't drink whisky," I will 
say, "Get my shroud ready!" I mean to die sober. 
If a fellow gets so low that nothing but liquor will 
save him, I am ready to preach his funeral; and I 
have a text that I '11 make him hop on. 

I rejoice to-night that in more than two-thirds of 
the counties of this State whisky can't be sold at all 
I am glad the Legislature is going to give us a gen- 
eral local option law. If we do n't turn whisky out of 
every county in this State at the first election, we will 
try it again. I had a great trial not long ago. I have 
been a poor man all my life ; and when friends in 
Nashville tendered me a house and offered to stand by 
me and back me up, it was a great temptation ; but 1 
looked down here and saw my old mother, Georgia 
I never loved her so in all my life before. I said 
" Brethren, no. I can't take it. Not that I love you 
less, but I love Georgia more." When I die I want 
to die in Georgia; and before I die I want to see every 
inch of her soil rid of the curse of whisky. I am no* 



300 Sermons and Sayings. 



mad with the men who sell whisky; I am not mad 
with the men who make it. I am mad with whisky. 
I am mad with demijohns. I am glad they have n't 
got legs. Those that have wickerwork around them 
have n't got legs, but there are plenty of old red-nosed 
demijohns walking around Atlanta. Ain't you sorry 
for a poor woman who has to put her tender arm into 
the handle of an old demijohn every time she goes to 
church? I put it this way: The liquor traffic ought 
to be made so odious that nobody but an infernal 
scoundrel will sell it, and nobody but an infernal fool 
will drink it. Separate these liquor-dealers from 
their liquor, and they will be all right. The church 
that will harbor a man who rents a house to sell liquor 
in is a hateful hypocrite. Some of these churches in 
Atlanta are doing just that thing. If there is in this 
vast audience one man or woman who never had a rel- 
ative or loved one hurt or ruined by whisky, I want 
him or her to stand up right now. You have all had 
a brotner, or a son, or a father, or a son-in-law ruined 
by whisky. My goodness, these sons-in-law! I'd 
rather have a boa-constrictor around my neck than to 
have a drunken son-in-law. The devil can't do any 
worse than that. Some of you old hypocrites who are 
dilly-dallying with the whisky question are going to 
get caught just that way. The devil is going to slip 
up on you with a drunken son-in-law; and I '11 bet he 
will make you a prohibitionist with a vengeance. 

I look around your city and see the bar-rooms as 
thick as the stars in the heavens. Each one of the 
three hundred bars in Atlanta represents at least ten 
confirmed drunkards. Three thousand men in At- 
lanta across the line and gone to ruin! You can stop 



Sermons and Sayings. 30]. 



it if you want to. There are Church-members enough 
in this town to turn out any day and vote liquor out 
of it. You are afraid to do it. You will let some 
bar-keeper with an old rusty pistol curse and rear 
around the polls and scare you home. You do n't 1 
want to have a fuss. Well, I '11 tell you, every good 
man dreads a fuss; but he doesn't fear any thing that 
walks on the earth. The Church lies back on the 
idea that it must have peace. Old Joshua went out 
one day and fought all day long. He was crowding 
the enemy, when he looked up and saw the sun going 
down. He said: "Lord, if you will just give me three 
or four more hours of sunshine, I '11 clean these fel- 
lows up off of the face of the earth." And the Lord 
just made that old sun rack back on the dial; and 
Joshua won a victory the fame of which has lasted 
until this day. God despises a coward. I had rather 
die at the mouth of a cannon doing my duty than to 
run away from it because I was afraid. God intrusts 
all the noble causes on this earth to men who are 
game. One enthusiastic, brave man in each county 
in this State can carry prohibition in Georgia. If 
you have n't got one in your county, import one. Talk 
about high license for whisky! I 'd as soon have high 
license for small-pox. I don't want liquor at any 
price. If you fathers, who have sons who are your 
pride and your country's hope, will give your enthu- 
siasm, your brains, and you money into this cause, the 
day will soon come when a mother can kiss her boy 
when he leaves her side in the morning and know that 
lie is safe. I want to see the good people of Atlanta 
go to the polls and work as they did in Cartersville, and 
this blighting curse will be lifted from your fair city 



PROHIBITION IN ATLANTA. 

<%! UST previous to the well-won victory for prohibi- 
JgJ tion in the election at Atlanta, Ga., on the 25th 
' of November, Mr. Jones delivered in that city a 
mpst telling speech, of which this is a synopsis: 

They talk about prohibition stopping building in 
Atlanta. One who would not give his name writes a 
card, and says he had great plans for building, but he 
stopped until he sees how this election is going. I 
have racked my brains to see how whisky helps build- 
ing. We show that in every town where prohibition 
has been tried building has gone right ahead just the 
same as before, or better. They say it will do very 
well for small places, but not for Atlanta. Atlanta is 
nothing but a big family. You, Mr. Mayor, are the 
father, and the aldermen are the uncles and aunts. 
Newnan is a small family. Prohibition does wonder- 
fully well there, but it won't do for this big family. It 
is good enough for a father with two sons. If he has 
been more fortunate, and has ten sons, it will never 
do. Some of the ten are obliged to get drunk. Talk 
of injuring Atlanta's trade! The trade of Atlanta 
does n't come from the red noses of Georgia. The good 
people outside of your city are interested in this con- 
test. One-half of the men and women of Georgia 
are on' their knees every night praying that the great 
capital city of the State may redeem herself from this 
curse. On the 25th of November, when Atlanta puts 
legs on her demijohns and whisky-barrels and says 
(302) 



Sermons and Sayings. 303 



"Git! " she will start a grand movement that will sweep 
far and wide through this country. Macon will come 
into line; Augusta will be with you; and if you don't 
look sharp Birmingham will get there before you do. 
The trouble with you prohibitionists in Atlanta is that 
you don't "crystallize." You don't walk up and say, 
Here 's my one hundred dollars, or my five hundred 
dollars. These whisky men in and out of Atlanta have 
put up fifty thousand dollars to carry this contest, for 
they look on it as a great test question. You meet 
that with a pitiful little two thousand dollars. If you 
do n't crystallize better than that you '11 get left. There 
are men in Atlanta who can afford to pay twenty-five 
thousand dollars to see prohibition here. They will 
leave a big legacy to the bar-keepers when they die. 
They will give it to their boys, but the bar-keepers 
will get it. 

If you whisky men will let us try prohibition for 
two years we will give you a chance to vote on it at the 
end of that time, and if we do n't wallop you, then 
you can have whisky here forever. You have had old 
Atlanta, laying it on to her, ever since she was born. 
You greedy fellows, won't you ever get enough ? There 
is not a man in this town who can get up and say 
whisky never harmed him or some one that was dear 
to him. 

They 've got the doctors hold of the question, and 
the doctors have disagreed. The fellow may get well 
now. I do n't blame some of the doctors. If he is a 
young doctor, and favors whisky, he is laying the basis 
for a large practice. You have no such doctors in At- 
lanta, but if there is a contemj)tible creature on this 
earth it is one of these little cymling-headed doctors, 



304 Seemons and Sayings. 



prancing around with a flask of whisky in each over- 
coat pocket, treating his patients — at a dollar a drink. 
Prohibition is not going to hurt any thing that ought 
to prosper. I dare them to put their finger on a place 
in this world where rents have gone down or business 
suffered becaiise of prohibition. Sometimes they say 
I am too strong in some of my expressions, and too 
extreme in some of my views. They say I am drag- 
ging the pulpit into the mire of politics; but, so help 
me God, I shall never stop so long as I know that I 
am fighting for broken-hearted women, and down- 
trodden men, and hungry children! I trust God will 
let me live long enough to stand up and say in other 
States that in my own loved State of Georgia not one 
drop of whisky can be legally sold. 



THE END. 



